Dillon's Danegerous Game
by Tinni93
Summary: PR RPM - Trouble brews in Corinth when Venjix plans on capturing two of the rangers to convert over to his side. Will he be able to do so when a strange man named Dane emerges?
1. Relaxation and Evaluation

_**Dillon's Dane-gerous Game**_

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Power Rangers in any way, shape or form.**

Inside the domed city of Corinth, the weather a breezy and sunny. Everybody seemed as if they were in a good mood, even the birds flew around happily from tree to tree. It was a perfect day to relax and have some fun.

The five colorful rangers were all at The Garage. Dillon sat in a small chair with his feet propped up on a table in front of him with a yellow lollipop in his mouth and his sliver pocket watched in his hand. He just sat there listening to the music the watched played and staring at the watch itself. His thoughts drifted as he stared at the ticking device.

As for Scott, Flynn, Summer and Ziggy, the had their own activity in progress. The four surrounded a small table, which they were staring at intently. The looks on their faces were a mix of determination and seriousness. They all looked at one another, and then their eyes turned to Flynn.

"There's no way he does it…it just can't be." Ziggy said as he turned his glance back to the table.

Summer sucked air through her teeth in protest. "I don't know, he's gotten pretty good at this."

Dillon looked over at them from his chair. When he saw what they were doing he just rolled his eyes and focused again on the watch.

"Shh!!" Scott snipped at the others. "We need to let him concentrate. This is a very delicate procedure."

Ziggy and Summer nodded in agreement and did as they were told. Flynn stared with strong determination at the table, trying as hard as he could to focus on what lay before him. Scott, Summer and Ziggy all tensed up when they saw him move his hand in.

With that, Flynn gently pulled out a small wooden block out of the block tower, being as careful as he could be. He wasn't careful enough, however. The tower was already lacking the basic structure it needed to stand, and when Flynn removed the next block, the tower collapsed with a crash. The rangers groaned in disappointment as they looked at the scattered pieces on the table—the game was over.

"No! I lost! And I really thought I had it with that one too." Flynn said to the others sadly.

"That's the thing with this game," Summer said as she gathered the pieces, piling them back into the box, "you can lose at the last second." She grinned.

The team rose from the table and stretched a little.

"Same time tomorrow, team." Scott said with a smile as he pointed at them.

Ziggy grabbed a small book from his backpack that was on the floor and looked to Dillon. "Yeah, and maybe next time we'll be able to get Dillon to play with us."

When Dillon heard his name he looked over to the other rangers, plucking the candy from his mouth. "I still don't understand why you're playing kiddie games when we could be training." He said flipping the watch closed, ending the music. "Seems like a big waste of time to me."

Scott scoffed at the Black Rangers words and walked over to him. You could see the anger in his steps. "We've been training all day, we all deserve a break. It's okay to take a rest every now and again." He told him. "Our mental status is just as important as our physical."

"Must've missed that little gem when I was in school." Dillon retaliated with a smirk.

Summer held the game box and looked at her friends. "Don't bother with him, Scott. Dillon likes to brood about after he trains." She said with a light chuckle. "I'd say he'll be about another…oh, twenty minutes."

Dillon shot the Yellow Ranger a dirty, but in the same way playful look. She grinned back at him while placing the game box in a large trunk.

"Well, I smell trouble brewing, so if you don't mind," Flynn began, pulling a wrench from his back pocket, tossing it in the air and catching it, "I'm going to go work on my car." He said carefully as he slid out of the room.

Scott just continued glaring angrily at Dillon. "Don't you ever get tired of just moping around?" he asked him.

"Well, according to Summer, I don't mope," He said with a smart-alecky tone, placing the sucker back in his mouth, "I brood."

Scott just scoffed sharply and rolled his eyes. He turned and began to storm out of The Garage. "I'm going for a drive, _Summer,_ you contact me if anything happens." He finished and was gone.

"Whatever." Dillon said coldly, flipping the watch back open, resuming the music.

"Oooookay." Ziggy said. "On that note, if you two are finished, I am going to read for a while." He told them, as he jumped and landed in a laying down position on the couch.

Dillon watched him with his eyebrows raised. "What book is that?" he asked.

"Oh, it's great!" Ziggy exclaimed looking at the cover. "It's called 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.' It's a great novel about how a man tries to save his mentally ill father and invents a antidote for him. But when he tests out the formula on himself, it causes him to develop another personality named Hyde." He explained. "It really shows how there is good and evil in all of us…or in _your_ case good and…Venjix hardware." He trailed off.

Ziggy tossed the book to Dillon. When he caught it he examined the cover closely. It was two men's side profiles. They looked like the same person but different in a way. The man on the right was very clean cut and gallant looking in a suit and tie, whereas the man on the right had crazy hair and eyes that glowed a dark gold, topaz –like color. He barred a cane and a scowl on his face.

"Wow…" Dillon said, he was surprised that the cover actually looked interesting. "So this is the same guy?"

"Exactly!" Ziggy said excitedly. "The man on the left is Henry Jekyll—the heroic, doctor type, and the man on the right is Edward Hyde—the evil, trouble causing tyrant the he turns in to."

Dillon shook his head before he chucked the book back at Ziggy. "Whatever keeps you from bugging me, Green Boy."

Ziggy barely caught the novel that was thrown at him; he nearly fell off of the sofa. "Well, _I _like it." He told him sadly.

Dillon flipped is watched closed again and placed it in the pocket of his black jeans. "You know that's just fiction, right? Nobody really can change from good to evil back and forth; you're either one or the other. It's just a story someone made up." He said coldly.

"Those are the best ones." Summer interjected as she made her way across the room. Dillon had forgotten she was there, she figured she had ran after Scott in their little argument.

"Thank you, _Summer_." Ziggy said, glaring at Dillon as he spoke.

"You've read it too I take it?" Dillon asked her, folding his arms.

"Many times." Summer told him as she took a seat at one of the table's chairs. "I like how there's two sides to the character. He has his good moments and bad, but in the end, he wants the good to prevail. He's a lot like you." She said.

"Like me?" Dillon asked her back. Summer nodded and she looked over to Ziggy who nodded as well in agreement with her. "Okay!" Dillon said standing forcefully, "If you're all finished evaluating me—I have things to do." With that, he grabbed his leather jacket from the chair and stormed out.

"We can really get under his skin, huh?" Ziggy asked her.

"I'll say." She answered. She didn't think she was really_ evaluating _him—she was trying to pay him a compliment really. She knew that Dillon had two sides to him and she's seen them both. He was all rough and brooding when she met with him in prison, but he showed the gentler side of himself that day in the park, when he opened up to her that he failed in saving someone dear to him. Sure, he was rough around the edges but she knew deep down there was a softer side to him, and hoped that side would show more in time.

Inside the Venjix barricades, General Crunch, General Shifter and Tenaya 7 all surrounded the master machine that was their boss. General Crunch seemed stood their all dopey, General Shifter wanted to get down to business, and Tenaya just wanted to be sent out to defeat the rangers.

"Well, my robotic underlings, "I have a mission proposition for one of you. It involves capturing a couple of the Power Rangers. It will be difficult—is anyone up to the task?" Venjix asked the three in his loud and booming voice.

Tenaya's eyes got wide with excitement—this is the moment she had been waiting for. She was already getting antsy just patrolling around the barricades; she wanted some action on the battlefield.

Before she could step forward, she saw Crunch beat her to it.

"I can handle it Master Venji—" Crunch began but slipped and fell on a broken shard of machinery. General Shifter and Tenaya gave him a look of disgust as he found his footing again. He dusted his bulky body off in embarrassment. He knew that this blew any chance he had of getting this mission. "I'm going to go, and uh…yeah." He trailed off in defeat as he sulked out of the room. General Crunch was never the sharpest knife in the drawer and he had just proved it.

"Incompetent fool." Venjix grumbled. "Tenaya!" he shouted out to her.

She could feel her face lighting up with confidence. "Yes, Master Venjix?" she said with a bow. Afterwards she stepped forward. "How can I be of assistance to you?" she asked.

"As you know, there are now five Power Rangers as opposed to the original two." Venjix began.

"I am aware of that fact." She said with an evil grin plastered on her face.

"Well, we need to make sure that these two 'newcomers' are handled. We can't risk the rangers having more power than we do." He told her.

Venjix's words made General Shifter step up in utter disgust. "And you want _her_ to try and handle them? What about me? I'm far more efficient that she is!" he yelled at the machine.

"Do you want me to add you to the list of the people I 'handle'?" Tenaya asked him.

"Silence!" Venjix interrupted. "The both of you!" he then turned his attention back to Tenaya, and her to his. "Since these rangers are so new to the team it makes them somewhat of rookies, making not too difficult to deal with them—the Green one at least."

"And Ranger Black?" she asked cocking her head to the side.

"He may pose to be a problem, what with his super strength and speed. But I have something that will give you the upper hand." Venjix reassured her. He then took his long crane-like claw and reached in deep into the pit next to him. Tenaya followed it to where it moved. When the claw resurfaced, it was holding a strange weapon. It looked like a metal rod with five claw-like shards jutting out of one end of it.

Tenaya took the weapon proudly in her hands. "What shall I do with this, master?" she asked looking at the rod.

"If you use this on Ranger Black, it will shut down any of my hardware he has inside of him completely." Venjix said with an evil tone. "Rendering him defenseless."

"Are the effects permanent?" Tenaya asked him.

"No. It's only temporary." Venjix answered. "It only lasts about five hours, so you will have to act fast. Once you've defeated them, bring them back here so I can figure out what I want to do with them." He went on.

"It will be done immediately, sir." Tenaya answered simply with another small bow. She left the base with the weapon in her grip. After she was gone, General Shifter ran forward in fury.

"So you're just going to let her go alone?!" Shifter growled.

"You'll have your role of play in this General Shifter…believe me." Venjix assured him.

"That being?" Shifter asked with an annoyed tone.

"You will need to hold off the other rangers while Tenaya completes her task. It's either that or stay here and work with General Crunch. Take your pick." Venjix told him.

General Shifter balled his fists together. "Fine." He growled. When he left, he saw Tenaya right outside the base doors. "Just don't get in my way." He said evilly to her as he passed.

"Same to you." She sneered back at him with her evil grin on her face. She loved this. She got the mission that Shifter wanted. He had to hold off the other rangers while she handled the main tasks, and she knew that that drove him nuts.

Back inside of Venjix's chambers, he seemed pretty confident with his plan. They would completely ambush the rangers and capture one of their strongest teammates. If their physical strength wasn't affected by the loss of the two rangers, he knew that the emotional strength would be.

"This'll show the rangers who's in charge." He snickered evilly to himself.


	2. A Two Way Battle

Scott was at the local racetrack doing laps. This is where he went to blow off steam. As much as he hated to admit it, Dillon had gotten to him. He made him doubt himself as a leader. He was trying the best he could, and he didn't want his teammates to overdo it.

He felt anger racing through his veins as fast as he was driving as he accelerated the bright red vehicle. Dust and tiny rocks blew up from the speed and friction the wheels caused on the ground. Each turn was faster than the one that came before it, and if he didn't slow down he was bound to tip over.

Scott felt his grip on the steering wheel get tighter and tighter. "Who does Dillon think he is!" he asked himself. "_I'm _the leader of this team, and _I'm _the one who calls the shots! He never should have joined us in the first place if all he's going to do is criticize the way I do things!"

Deep down, Scott really didn't mean the things he was saying. That's why he came out here in the first place—he didn't want to say anything around anyone that would be perceived the wrong way because he was just angry.

Suddenly he heard his Morpher chime, and he knew that trouble was near. He screeched the cherry red beauty to a halt and yanked out his Morpher from his pocket. After he opened it and saw where he was needed to go, he slammed it closed and did a 180 on the track and drove to where the trouble was.

Meanwhile at The Garage, Ziggy continued to read his novel on the couch. He was falling in and out of sleep while doing so. Summer was at a table next to him doing paperwork. When she saw how goofy he looked jerking awake every ten seconds, she had to laugh.

"Oh, Ziggy," she sighed to herself, "you sure are a rare one."

Then she heard their Morphers go off alerting the rangers to trouble. She grabbed her Morpher from her pocket and ran around the table to Ziggy.

"C'mon, Ziggy, wake up! There's an attack!" she said shaking him hard enough to wake him up.

Ziggy jumped awake throwing punches at the air—he was clearly having a nightmare of some sort. "Um…" he said clearing his throat when he saw Summer was hovering about him. "I was just…reading." He lied. Summer nodded at him in disbelief.

Flynn busted through the Garage doors wiping his hands off on an old blue oil rag. "Duty calls!" he announced to them.

"Really? Whoo, let's do this!" Ziggy cheered, hoping up from the couch. He was currently the newest ranger, and although he didn't seem to like it at first, he sure loved it now.

"Scott told me through my Morpher that he and Dillon will meet us there." Summer said looking at her Morpher as she spoke.

Doctor walked into the room holding her clipboard. "I have already told Scott where to meet you all. It's in the old abandoned warehouse downtown. Please hurry, any plans Venjix has are cause for immediate action."

"Be back in a flash!" Ziggy told the doctor. Then he, Flynn and Summer all ran off to heed their call.

Dillon was using his free time to work out in the Corinth City Gym. He was bench-pressing over a thousand pounds yet he didn't seem to have any sort of struggle—after all, he _did_ have robotics inside him that gave in incredible strength.

When he heard his Morpher go off, he placed the dumbbell on the stand above him. As he stood up, the whole machine tipped over due to the incredible weight that it held. Dillon chuckled to himself, for this wasn't the first time something like this had happened to him.

He opened his Morpher to see where the call was coming from. "The abandoned warehouse downtown." He said with a sigh. He really didn't want to fight right now, he wanted to train. Plus he wasn't so thrilled about seeing Scott and the others again having left on the terms that they did. "Great." He mumbled while he grabbed a towel, wiped his face, then ran out of the gym.

The five colorful rangers met up right where their Morphers had told them—at the abandoned warehouse in downtown Corinth. When they made it there, they saw Tenaya 7 ahead of them with a large group of Grinders.

"Hello, rangers! Nice to see you again." She said while she twirled the strange weapon in her hands. A strange mask covered the top half of her face.

"What could you possibly want Tenaya? Is it to go on another one of your rants? Because I have to admit, that alone is probably enough to destroy us, you don't need all of these Grinders." Scott told her snidely.

"Oh, that hurts my feeling so much…oh wait, that's right. I'm a attack-bot, I have no feelings." She snapped back at him.

"That's for sure." Ziggy chimed in.

"Let me guess, you want a battle?" Dillon asked glaring at her.

"Bingo." She answered with a wicked grin.

"Well, she's going to get one courtesy of the Power Rangers." Ziggy said as he extended his arm to display his team.

"I am truly shaking in fear." Tenaya said with a sarcastic tone.

"Wait!" Summer said pointing and stepping forward. "What's that she's holding in her hand."

"A new weapon by the looks. Better be wary of her." Flynn said cautiously.

"Please," Dillon scoffed, "What's a puny little weapon like going to do?"

"Wanna find out?" Tenaya asked him with a face mixed with evil and amusement.

"Enough!" Scott yelled at them. "Let's just make this battle a quick one."

Then the five rangers all pulled out their Morphers and activated them by placing their Morpher cards in them. "RPM—Get in gear!" they yelled simultaneously. Seconds later they were all in their ranger forms.

"Separate Rangers Red, Blue and Yellow from Black and Green." She said softly to the Grinders beside her looking at her newfound weapon, "I'll handle the rest." She walked forward to the rangers. The Grinders ran full speed past her to get to their targets.

"More Grinders." Summer sighed, unfazed by her opponents.

"No problem!" Flynn shouted as he pulled out his large blue device. "Turbo Cannon!" he shouted, firing a powerful blast into the group of Grinders approaching.

Meanwhile, Tenaya and a few stray Grinders made their way to Rangers Green and Black.

Ziggy folded his arms when he saw her walking toward him. "Didn't get enough of me last time, huh?" he taunted her referring to a mission he had when he first became a ranger.

Tenaya just groaned in disgust throwing a punch to his stomach. The blow made contact forcing the Green Ranger to stagger backwards a couple of steps. He used the wheel gears on his legs to get his footing back.

Dillon grabbed the wrist of the hand Tenaya used to attack and pulled in behind her. Tenaya let out a small scream from the harsh grip he had on her.

"You bad chicks never quit do you?" he teased her.

"You wish." She scoffed. She jumped and spun out of her position but Dillon still had a grip on her wrist, so she kicked her leg high up over her trapped hand and aimed it at his head. He had no choice but to release her so he could defend himself from her kick.

Now that Ziggy finally had balanced on his feet, he decided to attack at her next. "Turbo Axe!" he yelled loudly while he swung the massive blade around at her. As the axe made it's decent, Tenaya used this time to throw five hard punches at Ziggy's chest—nailing him with every one. As Ziggy went to grab his chest, his axe was thrown high in the air, Tenaya caught it and used it to slash him twice more across the chest. She tossed the axe aside and turned to Ranger Black. The Green Ranger fell to the concrete gripping his injured chest. Moments later, Grinders picked him from the ground to restrain him.

"Ziggy!" Dillon exclaimed pushing Tenaya off of him and ran toward him. But Tenaya, like himself, had super speed. She dashed in front of him, cutting him off with an attempted swipe at the face, which he promptly dodged. He growled loudly in frustration.

"Zip Charger!" Ranger Yellow shouted firing her bright yellow device at her opponents.

"Street Saber!" Scott did in turn, pounding down on a small group of Grinders, annihilating them in seconds.

With the three devastating attacks from the Red, Blue and Yellow Rangers, the Grinders were toast. The fell into piles of nothing more than wiring and scrap metal. The primary colored rangers all met together and gave one another high-fives for their victory.

"That takes care of that!" Scott said proudly putting his saber away.

"When are they going to learn that Grinders are pointless?" Flynn asked with a sigh.

"Uh-oh…" Summer said lowly, pointing in Green and Black's direction. "They may be pointless for fighting, but their distraction skills are right on!" she said slowly realizing that Ziggy and Dillon were being ambushed by Tenaya and another group of Grinders.

"Let's go help them!" Scott ordered, leading his Blue and Yellow partners to their friends in danger. But before they could reach them however, General Shifter appeared to make sure they didn't get in the way.

"Whoa!" The team exclaimed in shock. They had forgotten that Tenaya wasn't the only one of Venjix's helpers.

"Greetings, rangers." He said to them with a snide tone. "Where are you going?"

"Get out of our way, fiend!" Flynn yelled at him.

"Make me!" Shifter retaliated.

"Why do they always make us do things the hard way?" Summer sighed.

Then the three rangers combined their weapons, the Zip Charger, Turbo Cannon, and the Street Saber into one giant weapon.

"Road Blaster!" They called as they held the weapon at General Shifter.

"You…_can't_ be serious?" General Shifter said in amazement as he fought to stifle his laughter.

"You bet we are!" Scott yelled at him. "Ready team?" he asked his partners.

"Ready!" Ranger Blue and Yellow responded.

"Fire!" Scott shouted as the hefty weapon released a giant energy surge. The machine's kick caused them to be thrown back a little.

General Shifter was still while he watched the surge grow closer to him. "This is pathetic." He mumbled to himself. He knelt down on one knee and held up the outsides of his arms, allowing the blast to hit him. They way his body was positioned however made the blast ricochet off of his arms and back at the rangers. The attack plummeted the rangers hard. Scott crashed into an old banged up car, while Summer and Flynn landed in a pile of old crates and boxes. The team fought to make it to their feet.

"Alright, how'd he do that?" Flynn asked them holding his side.

"Venjix's hardware—it's powerful stuff." Summer surmised as she aided the Blue Ranger.

"Bingo! You got it Yellow Ranger! Venjix's hardware can withstand blasts far beyond your imagining! Your prize for guessing correctly—another blast!" Shifter cackled. He lifted his arm and fired and energy blast at the rangers. The rangers soon found themselves back on the ground.

Scott rolled onto his back with a heavy sigh. "Oh man, this is brutal."

"This can't be good." Summer added, making it to her knees.

"I think we're in trouble." Flynn told them worriedly.


	3. Hide and Seek

Dillon saw trouble brewing all around him. He saw that Scott, Flynn and Summer were being thrown around like rag dolls by Shifter, Ziggy was in a tight hold by some Grinders, and he himself was struggling to keep up with Tenaya.

"Oh, brother…" he said to himself with a sigh. He had never been one to panic when things looked bad; he always tried to keep his cool. He did this because he knew that panicking doesn't help anybody, and if anyone needed not to panic right now—it was him.

All he needed to do was devise a plan. Although it was hard to think with Tenaya throwing punch after punch his way and trying to use this strange rod on him, he had to think of something. So he knew what the first part of his plan had to be—get Tenaya off of him for a few seconds.

So, as he engaged in a battle with her, he leapt high up in the air, kicking her in the chest. He used her as leverage to get more air so he could help Ziggy. While in mid-air, he called upon his Rocket Blaster, and annihilated the Grinders that had a hold on Ziggy.

With Ziggy freed and trying to get back his bearings, he knew that now he had to do something to assist the others. So he tried the only thing he could think of at the moment.

"Ziggy! Throw me your axe!" he yelled to him.

"My axe?" he asked in confusion. "Sure, fine, why not? It's really my _only_ weapon and I need to—"

"Ziggy!" Dillon shouted at him.

"Fine! Here! Just don't…break it or anything." He told the Black Ranger as he heaved the large green axe his way.

When Dillon caught the Turbo Axe he combined it with his own Rocket Blaster. "Turbo Plasma Launcher!" he shouted pointing the mixed weapon at General Shifter. "Fire!" he yelled firing it. The blast made contact with the robot and he saw him stagger a bit. "Take that bot-boy." He said in a snide and low tone.

"That ought to buy them some time while I lure Tenaya away." He thought to himself. He then quickly separated his and Ziggy's weapon and tossed it back to him. "Thanks, man!" he yelled to Ziggy.

"No problem." He answered in awe. "And can I say—that…was…awesome."

"Thanks, go help them!" Dillon replied pointing back to his friends.

"Gotcha!" the Green Ranger responded and ran to do his task.

Tenaya looked over at him as she dusted herself off. The look on her face was not a happy one. "Alone at last, ranger." She said walking towards him. "I'll make you pay for that."

"Only if you can catch me first." Dillon told her in amusement. He then ran into one of the warehouse sections to get her away from the others. He knew that the rangers would have a hard enough time dealing with General Shifter. The last thing they needed was Tenaya breathing down their necks. He wanted to lure her there so he could ambush her.

Tenaya stayed behind for a few moments and got that wicked smirk on her face again. She retracted her mask and shook her head. "This is going to be easier than I thought." She looked at the sharp weapon in her hands. After throwing it up in the air and catching it, she made her way after Ranger Black.

"Where's _he_ going?" Scott asked in surprise. "Why would he help us and then run off?"

"Who knows?" Summer replied, "I'm just glad he's getting Tenaya out of the way."

"Um, can we worry about that later?! We're about to get fried here!" Flynn said.

General Shifter let out a roar of fury. "I'll make you pay dearly for that Black Ranger…" he said lowly to himself as he gathered himself back to his feet. He inched closer to them.

Well, we have to do something, he's catching up to us." Scott said to his teammates. "Let's try and blast him!"

"I'll try anything at this point." Summer added.

"Nitro Blasters!" the rangers shouted flipping their Nitro Sabers into its gun-like mode. "Fire!" the shouted, firing rapidly at Shifter. But he just walked right on through it with without a scratch.

"I find it hilarious that you still like wimpy blasters like that would have the slightest effect on me." Shifter laughed growing closer to them still.

"Brace for impact you guys!" Scott said as he and his friends threw up their arms in defense.

Just before Shifter could attack them, he felt a powerful blow to his back, causing him to fall forward. As he fell, the rangers saw Ziggy standing behind him with a smoking axe.

"Phew! That was a close one." Ziggy said weakly. He was still reeling from what Tenaya and the Grinders did to him, he started to fall over but he stuck his axe to the ground to hold him up.

"Ziggy?" Scott said with surprise. Then he and his Blue and Yellow Ranger partners darted to him to get him to his feet.

"Are you alright there?" Flynn asked, holding on to his arm.

"Me?" Ziggy chuckled. "Of course I am! I _am _the Green Power Ranger after all."

"Ziggy, where'd Dillon run off to?' Summer asked him quickly.

"I- I don't know. All I saw was him run into one of the sections of the warehouse…" he began, "…with Tenaya."

"Well, one of us should go after him. He may need assistance." Summer said as she began to run in Dillon's direction.

"You're not going anywhere!" Shifter growled at her. The Yellow Ranger stopped in her tracks.

"Great—round two." Flynn sighed.

"One of us has to go after Dillon." Summer said to them.

"No," Scott told her firmly. "Series Black is one of the strongest forms of hardware around. He can handle himself."

"Right." Summer said sadly. She never doubted how strong Dillon was. Chances were that he was annihilating Tenaya at this very moment. But she still couldn't help feeling something bad was going to happen. But it was her duty as Ranger Yellow to follow Red's orders.

"I'll make you pay for that, you insects!" Shifter roared.

"We need a plan! I don't want to have to pay for anything—I'm in enough debt as is!" Ziggy said nervously.

"Guess we're just going to have to throw everything we have at him." Scott said as he pulled his blaster out into a saber. Summer, Flynn and Ziggy copied him with their blasters. "Nitro Sabers!"

Scott looked behind himself to the other rangers. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" he said to the mischievously. The others nodded in response to him and they activated the gears on their legs to dramatically boost their speed. They ran all around Shifter slashing him over and over again with their sabers.

The smoke created from their speed quickly proved to be a problem. They moved so quickly that the smoke veiled everything around them—they may as well of had blindfolds on. Seeing this, they four immediately stopped running to allow the smoke to clear. When it did, they didn't see General Shifter anywhere.

"Where did this freak go and hide?" Summer asked them with annoyance.

Ziggy gulped. "It's never good to hear someone say _that_."

The rangers were in a circle like formation. Above them, they saw General Shifter performing an aerial attack. He landed right in the middle of them and spun himself all around to attack all of them at once. The rangers soon found themselves on the ground yet again.

"What do we do now? Our levels are reaching critical!" Flynn cried.

Scott groaned as he used his saber to pull himself up. "I may have an idea."


	4. Black Out

Meanwhile in one of the larger sections of the warehouse, Dillon ran to get Tenaya to follow him. When he came to a dead end of crates and scrap metal he was forced to come to a halt. He looked all around himself but he didn't see Tenaya anywhere.

"She's gotta be here somewhere." He said softly to himself.

All of a sudden he heard whistling. Someone was whistling the 'Farmer in the Dell' tune and he knew that that someone was Tenaya. She was nearby and preparing to make her strike.

"Great, again with the whistling. The girl needs a new hobby." He said still looking all around him.

He turned his back to look some more. "Where are you?" he spoke lowly.

Suddenly the whistling stopped and he heard her voice right behind him. "Right here." She hissed. Before Dillon could turn around to fight her, he felt her jab something sharp into his back, it felt like fingernails pressing into him. But it wasn't—it was her new weapon. The pain he felt in his back made him gasp loudly. He wasn't aware that he could really even feel pain-- at least not like this. If felt like his whole system was shutting off. He fell forward onto the floor crying out. She had him pinned and he couldn't move.

"Thought you could outsmart me, Black Ranger? Think again." She sneered while she still pressed the weapon into his back.

Dillon saw everything around him going black. He couldn't move or stand all he could do was lay there. His ranger powers left him in a flash he tried to move his Morpher up to his mouth to call the others for help, but Tenaya grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"What're you doing to me?" he asked weakly.

"Stop fighting it, Ranger Black." She said evilly to him, ignoring his question completely. "You don't stand a chance."

"I'll make you pay for this…I swear." He told her in a pained voice.

"I look forward to seeing you try." She replied with a smirk.

Dillon felt he couldn't hang on any longer. It felt like she was draining the life out of him, and as far as he knew, she could have been. After a few more seconds his body went limp and Tenaya felt his struggling cease. She didn't noticed something falling out of his pocket.

"Nighty night." She said coldly in his ear. She stood and dusted herself off and afterwards she extended her hand to teleport Dillon where she wanted him to be—Venjix's lair.

She chuckled at her handy work. "Now for the Green one…" she said as she strode out of the warehouse proudly.

Scott, Flynn, Summer and Ziggy all surrounded General Shifter with their weapons drawn. Their Street Saber, Turbo Cannon, Zip Charger, and Turbo Axe were all ready for fire. The four backed up in preparation to fire.

Tenaya exited the warehouse and saw what the rangers had up their sleeves. But her mission wasn't completed yet, and she wasn't going to stop until it was.

"Hit me with your best shot!" Shifter taunted to the rangers. "I DARE you!"

"You're surrounded, Shifter! You can't run, you may as well surrender!" Scott said as he aimed his large blade at the fiend.

"Bring it!" Shifter said trying to egg him on.

"Rangers, prepare for fire in three…two…" Scott instructed them.

Tenaya noticed how focused the rangers were on General Shifter at the moment, so she thought she'd use this opportunity to capture her next target. She crept up behind Ziggy and grabbed him tightly.

"Whoa! Not _you _again! Back off!" Ziggy shouted in her face.

"You're coming with me!" She informed him, teleporting him and herself away from the battle.

"One!" Scott yelled, not noticing that one of his teammates was swiped. Due to the far distance apart they were, it was easy to miss. Summer and Flynn did as they were told and fired their weapons on Scott's call. Like before, General Shifter managed to evade the attack.

"See? Useless!" Shifter snapped at them with a taunting laugh.

"What?!" Summer cried in surprise.

"That should have ended him!" Flynn explained as he lowered his large cannon.

"I know!" Scott replied. "Our weapons with Ziggy's axe should have…" Scott trailed off; finally realizing that another one of his teammates was gone. "Where's Green?" he asked them.

"Huh? He was just here!" Summer said looking to where Ziggy was just moments ago.

"He couldn't have just vanished…could he?" Flynn said confusedly tapping his finger against his helmet.

Scott ran ahead of Flynn and Summer. "What did you do with Green, Shifter?" he yelled.

"Why don't you ask Tenaya?" Shifter answered coldly with a chuckle.

"Tenaya?" Summer asked, joining Scott's side. "What're you talking about? Black is dealing with her right now!"

"Think again, weaklings." General Shifter laughed. He turned to walk away, "My work here is done! See ya, Power Losers!" with that, he leapt into a portal that had appeared, and teleported away.

"Hey, get back here!" Scott demanded. But his words were useless; Rangers Green and Black, along with General Shifter and Tenaya were long gone.

"Great! Now Shifter, Tenaya _and_ Ziggy are gone and we have no idea where they are!" Flynn angrily.

"Maybe Dillon knows where she plans to take him." Summer said, pulling out her Morpher and opening it. "Dillon? Dillon, come in. It's Summer." After a few moments of getting only dead air as a response, she began to grow worried. "Dillon?" she asked again, but still got nothing.

"Great." Scott sighed, throwing his head back.

"Wait, didn't we see him run into one of the warehouse sections after he helped us?" Flynn asked.

That was all Summer needed to hear. "Let's check it out!" she instructed her Red and Blue teammates. She ran off to the scene with them following close behind her.

The three rangers all ran into the same warehouse that they had seen Dillon run into. When they arrived there, they were surprised to find it empty.

"Dillon? Are you here?!" she yelled out. When she didn't get an answer still, she turned to Scott. "What do we do?"

"Find them is what we do." Scott answered.

"What's that?" Summer asked, pointing to the ground. She spotted a small, silver object on the ground. "Guys, look at this!"

to better observe the object, the three rangers all retracted their helmets. When they saw what Summer was holding in her hand, they knew something bad had happened.

The object she held was Dillon's pocket watch.

"Okay, that _can't_ be good." Flynn surmised. "Dillon never let's that thing out of his sight."

"I'll bet he's wherever Ziggy and Tenaya are. Let's report back to Doctor K. and she what she thinks about all of this." Scott told them. Summer and Flynn nodded in agreement. When Scott and Flynn ran ahead she stayed behind for a moment looking at the watch. She held it close to her chest for a moment, and then ran after the others.


	5. Strains of Leadership and Imprisionment

Ziggy felt Tenaya's fingers wrapped tightly around his arm as she dragged him down a long hallway. He looked at his surrounding trying to get some sort of idea where he was. Tenaya had taken his Morpher from him, so morphing and escaping seemed like an impossible feat at the moment. All he saw around him where large machines and countless Grinders. Soon Tenaya opened two large doors and threw him down to the floor. In front of him was the gigantic machine known as Venjix, and although he had never seen Venjix in person, he knew all to well who he was.

A couple of seconds later, General Shifter barged in with a person draped over his shoulder. He threw him to the ground next to Ziggy. The Green Ranger hadn't yet realized that someone was next to him given how frightened he was. He looked around whimpering in fear. When he looked to his right, he saw that Dillon was lying unconscious next to him.

He rushed over to him, shaking his shoulders up and down. "Dillon?" he asked worriedly. "You really need to wake up, buddy. We're kind of in a bind here." He said as he shook him more rapidly. He gave up after a short while of getting nothing from him. "Okay…" he spoke nervously, "…this isn't good."

Tenaya walked passed the two rangers and stood before her master. "The Black and Green Rangers, just like you ordered, Master Venjix." She said gesturing to them.

"Excellent work, Tenaya. Did Ranger Black put up much of a fight?" he asked coldly.

"It was easy. Like shooting fish in a barrel." Tenaya boasted with a grin.

"You couldn't of done it without me…" General Shifter grumbled.

"Wonderful." Venjix hissed. "Now what we need to is figure out what to do with them."

"Us? You mean, him and me?" Ziggy said pointing to himself and Dillon. "I'm just the weak little Green Ranger. I'm more of a mascot for the Power Rangers than an actual ranger." He babbled on. "Um…" he said looking over to Dillon. "If I may ask, what did you do to my friend here?"

"Tenaya took the liberty of shutting down his entire hardware system, making him an easy catch." Venjix answered him snidely. Tenaya twirled the weapon around in her hands proudly as he spoke.

"Shut down his powers, huh?" Ziggy stammered nervously. "Okay. It's official. I'm done for."

"Tenaya!" Venjix shouted. "Take our prisoners down to a holding cell while I figure out how I want to use them."

"Right away." She answered promptly. She grabbed Ziggy's arm once again.

Her nails dug into Ziggy's arm. "Ever think about clipping your nails there? They're like little knives that jab—"

"Save it!" she yelled digging her nails further into his arm and began to pull him out of the room.

"Great, off to another cell. I'm _really_ getting sick of this." Ziggy sighed while he was drug along. General Shifter threw Dillon over his shoulder once more, and followed Tenaya out of the room.

After the two were gone, General Crunch sheepishly emerged from behind a wall. He walked in front of Venjix to speak with him.

"Um…si-sir?" he stammered. "What should _I _do?"

"Just stay out of the way. I don't need this plan to fail like the others before." Venjix said in his loud voice.

"Oh…okay." General Crunch said sadly as he turned to mope away. "But I guess this means you don't want to hear about this new machine I've been working on…"

"A new machine?" Venjix mumbled to himself. "Hold it, General!"

"Yes, sire?" Crunch answered with a sneaky grin. He knew that Venjix was somewhat intrigued by what he said.

"What 'new machine' are you talking about?" Venjix asked.

Crunch began to pace around the floor excitedly as he explained his plan. "Oh, just a little device I created that's capable of converting those rangers over to _our_ side."

"Really?" Venjix asked, not completely sold on his plan. "How are you sure it works?"

"Oh, it works." Crunch answered proudly. "All we need to do is place a ranger in the chair, flip the switch and BAM!" he yelled smacking his hands together.

"Our side, huh?" Venjix asked feeling that this plan wasn't as stupid as he thought it would be.

"Yep, our own little ranger pets! We can do whatever we want with them!" Crunch told him excitedly.

Venjix decided to think this plan over for a few more moments. General Crunch was never a smart one and a lot of his plans never panned out, but this one sounded flawless to him. And if this plan were to be successful, he'd have his own small team of rangers to use however he pleased—that was all he needed to know.

"Alright, we'll do it. Prepare the machine right away." Venjix told him.

Crunch bowed to his master proudly. "I'll do it right away, master!" With that, Crunch proudly ran out of the room to ready his weapon. He wasn't going to screw this up for Venjix; he was going to make sure everything went perfectly.

"With my own team of rangers, I'll be unstoppable." Venjix said evilly to himself with a wicked chuckle.

Scott, Flynn and Summer all bolted into the garage. They ran until they made it to Doctor K's desk, they were so out of breath when they made it there that they had to catch their breath.

"Doctor K!" They all yelled at her simultaneously.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, rangers! Why are you all so eager?" She said to them. She looked around to only see three out of the five rangers there. "Where's Ziggy and Dillon?"

Scott exhaled sharply. "That's where the 'eagerness' comes in! Tenaya and Shifter took them away somewhere!"

"They were right there under our noses one minute, then gone the next!" Flynn added.

"We need to get them back as soon as possible. Who knows what they'll do to them." Summer said looking at her shoes worriedly.

"Now, hold on," K said rising from here chair. "How was Ranger Black captured with his heightened abilities?"

"That's the part we don't know." Scott said running his fingers through his hair. "We saw him lure Tenaya into one of the warehouses—the next thing we know, he's gone along with Ziggy."

"But Tenaya _did_ have a strange…claw weapon thing with her. It's nothing like I've seen before." Flynn told her.

"And what did this 'claw weapon thing' look like?" Dr. K asked as she headed over to one of the large computer monitors. She typed the keys quickly as the others spoke.

Summer walked beside the Doctor. "It was a foot long metal rod with five small claw-like pieces jutting out of the ends of it. It looked pretty dangerous to me." She said gesturing her hands about to further make her points.

"Hmm…" the Doctor said, taking in what Summer had explained to her. She clicked the keys until she finally found what she wanted. "Is this the weapon she had?" she asked, turning the monitor toward the rangers. And right there on the screen was the exact weapon that Tenaya had with her.

"Yes, that exactly." Scott said with a hint of relief in his voice. He was just happy to know that the Doctor seemed to know what it was. "What _is_ that?"

"I was afraid this was what it was." Doctor K said with a hard sigh. She turned to the rangers with a serious look on her face. "This is called a Cybernetic Electro Taser. It's used on creatures that use robotic hardwares to function." She leaned on the desk next to her as she went on. "They were first invented and used around two years ago when the Grinders began appearing. Cadets used them to completely shut down the Grinder's hardware so that they could be destroyed without struggle." She explained.

"Wait a minute. 'Shut down their hardware'?" She asked quoting her. She feared that this had been what happened to Dillon and felt herself grow more and more worried with each passing second. "How is that even possible?"

"The Cybernetic Electro Taser—or CET for short, sends weakening electrodes into the robot's wiring. These electrodes have the power to freeze the abilities the robots carry—such as super speed and super strength." Dr. K went on.

"So it basically paralyzes them?" Scott asked in disbelief.

"Well, yes and no." Dr. K said shaking her head. "The electrodes cause the body to be _completely_ shut off for only a short while, after that they will awaken and _feel_ back to normal."

"But I'm guessing they won't be." Flynn said flatly.

"Again, yes and no." Dr. K explained to them. "When they awaken they will still have no use of their robotic abilities…but only for a few short hours, after that, they will be completely back to normal—case closed."

"So that's how Tenaya was able to capture Dillon—she fried his circuits so he wouldn't be able to fight her." Scott said sighing.

"Well…" Summer said with small relief, "at least it's not permanent."

"So…won't he be able to free Ziggy and himself in a few hours?" Flynn asked. "I mean, Dillon isn't exactly a bad fighter."

"That all depends on what Venjix is planning to do with them." The Doctor told them. "And, keep in mind, she still has the taser."

"So how are we supposed to save them?!" Scott said hitting the table. "There's got to be some way or another."

"At this point in time there's nothing _we _can do." K informed them. "If Ziggy and Dillon can find a way to escape from wherever Venjix is holding them, we would have to first locate them, then send them a portal leading back here. It's the only way."

"Well, Ziggy seems to be capable of finding his way out of things. Maybe he'll come through for himself and Dillon." Flynn said trying to find a bright side to this dark situation.

"Those were my thoughts as well, Flynn. But until these next few hours pass, we have no way of aiding them. So what you should do is continue protecting Corinth. I'll inform you if I pick up either one of their signals." K insisted. The three rangers all nodded in agreement. Doctor K could see in their faces that they hated this. They were used to helping their friends whenever they were in danger. And now, doing nothing made them feel helpless.

"Fine." Flynn huffed. "I'm going to go work on my car some more. It could use a good tune-up. See you all in a little while." He finished as he walked slowly out of the room.

"I have some work to do myself. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab." Doctor K told the Red and Yellow Rangers. Just before she left the room, she turned to them. "Don't worry," she said, "we'll find them some way or another." After that, she was gone.

Summer began to leave the room as well. "I'm going for a walk." She said heading outside. Scott noticed her holding Dillon's watch in her hands looking at it sadly. He ran to catch up with her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright Summer?" he asked.

"What? Oh…yeah. I just hope we find Dillon and Ziggy is all." She answered quickly. Scott was surprised to hear the tone of her voice—it was cold.

"Are you…angry with me, Summer?" he asked her giving her a strange look.

Summer whipped around to face him; it was if the coldness of her voice had flowed into her eyes. "If we would have went to check on Dillon like I asked, we wouldn't even be in this mess." She began to storm out of the room but Scott called out to her.

"What? Are you trying to say that all of this is _my_ fault?" he asked her with an offended tone.

Summer stopped walking and turned around to face him once again. "In one way or another." She said coldly.

Scott walked a little closer to her. The look on his face was that of shock and hurt. "Dillon's more than capable of handling Tenaya on his own, you know that. How was I supposed to know what that taser of hers would do to him?" he asked her.

"We're a team." She said to him. "Scott…we're supposed to help one another out no matter how strong we are. I thought that as a leader, you'd know that." With that, she stormed out of The Garage.

Scott stayed behind while he watched her walk away. He felt fury fill his body. He was mad at everyone at the moment, Ziggy and Dillon for getting captured, Doctor K for giving them no orders as to what they should do, Summer for blaming things on him he couldn't have helped, but the there was one person he was mad at most of all—himself.

Scott balled his fists in anger and let out an angry roar. He kicked his red car beside him shattering the right headlight into tons of pieces. After he had seen what his outburst caused, he put his hands on top of his head and heaved a hard sigh, tightly closing his eyes. His day couldn't get any worse.


	6. Friends Behind Bars

The basement section of Venjix's base had the layout of a prison. Cells lined against all of the walls and the lighting there was very dim. All of the cells were empty except for two that were next to each other. Dillon occupied the cell to the left. He was lying on the bed in his cell still out of it. Ziggy was in on the right of his cell reading his book on his bed. His hands shook as he turned every page. He had no idea what was written on the pages, he just turned page after page. He was just relieved that he was able to smuggle the book in there. It was the only thing he had on him besides his clothing. Tenaya had taken his and Dillon's Morphers when she threw them in there.

The Morphers rested in a large clear tube next to their cell that Ziggy kept looking at. He never remembered being so frightened. He knew that if he could have access to his Morpher, which would give them some sort of hope of getting them out of this mess.

He turned his attention over to Dillon. He saw him sleeping heavily in the cell right next to him. With each passing second he wished he would wake up and help him devise a plan to escape.

"Why is it always me and you in these situations?" he asked his unconscious friend. "Here we are sitting in cells waiting to be turned into…robo-food or something, and there you are off in Dreamland."

Deep down Ziggy knew that Dillon's lack of consciousness was out of his hands. He and the rangers had gotten ambushed in their last fight and nothing was going to stop Tenaya from getting what she wanted, even if that meant zapping his friend into a small coma. He just needed someone to vent at so that he didn't go crazy. He tried to go back and focus on his book. As soon as he looked down, he heard a small groan come from the cell beside him. He rushed over to Dillon's cell and he saw that he was finally starting to come to.

"Well it's about time you woke up, sunshine." Ziggy said sarcastically.

Dillon looked around as he sat up. "Where are we?" he asked in a low, somewhat pained voice.

"Tenaya captured the both of us in battle and now Venjix is trying to decide what to do with us. Up to speed?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." Dillon answered. Ziggy then saw him place his hand on the right side of his back and wince.

"Um…are you alright?" he asked, feeling like a real jerk from his previous comment.

"Fine." Dillon answered quickly. "How long was I out for?"

"A little over four hours." Ziggy answered. "Did you injure your back somehow?" he asked looking at his friend.

Dillon turned to him with an annoyed look on his face. "No. _I'm fine._"

Ziggy stood pointing a finger at him. "I happen to know that you're lying to me." He stated.

"Oh you do, do you?" Dillon replied.

"Yes. I heard from Venjix that Tenaya shut down all of your robotic powers in that last battle." Ziggy boasted.

"Boo-hoo." Dillon said with sarcasm. " It's happened to me before—they'll come back."

"All the same, I still need to take a look at your back to see just how long that will be." Ziggy told him.

"And how's that?" Dillon asked.

"Depending on what type of taser she used on you I can tell approximately what time your powers should return." Ziggy said proudly. "I learned all about these types of weapons when I first came to Corinth, and trust me, it makes a difference."

Dillon rolled his eyes in protest, but he wanted to know when he would have his powers back—the sooner the better. "Fine." He submitted. He walked over to Ziggy's side of the cell and turned around, lifting up the back of his black shirt. What Ziggy saw astounded him; it was a large red mark on his back with five small lacerations in a circle form inside it. There was no doubt in his mind what did this.

"Wow, she really got you good." Ziggy said as he looked at the wound.

"Get to the point, Ziggy." Dillon said, growing impatient.

"Okay, okay!" Ziggy answered quickly. "It looks to me like she used a Five-Clawed Cybernetic Electro Taser on you."

"Meaning?" Dillon asked jerking his shirt back down. He turned to look at he Green Ranger.

Ziggy tapped on his chin in thought. "Well…" he began, "The amount of claws on the taser is usually linked to how long the victim's powers are frozen. So from the looks of it, your powers should be gone for at least five hours. And you were out for over four, so…"

"We don't have much time—gotcha." Dillon concluded. "So we just have to defend ourselves in the meantime."

"If this has happened to you before than you know full well that you can't fight. And…neither can I without my Morpher." Ziggy said with defeat.

Hearing Ziggy words brought something to Dillon's attention. He felt his wrist and realized that nothing was there, he looked outside of the cell to see that he and Ziggy's Morphers were locked in a clear container.

"They took our Morphers." Dillon said with an annoyed sigh.

"Yeah, things look real bright for us don't they?" Ziggy joked hanging his head.

"Well, the others know we're here, they'll find a way to get us out of this." Dillon told him.

Ziggy's head shot up, his eyes wide with surprise. "Did-did you just say something…positive?"

"Very funny." Dillon said with a small smile. He knew that he was never the most cheerful of people, but he had never seen Ziggy this down before. He didn't like it and thought it would benefit them both if he could cheer him up.

Dillon picked up his leather jacket and slid it on his body. When the jacket grazed his back it caused him to winced. He looked over at Ziggy whose head was down reading a book. "Even to Venjix's prison you brought that book. I find it hard to believe that it's _that_ good of a read."

Ziggy sighed and flip the book over to look at the cover. "It kills time until Venjix decides what he wants with us." He watched Dillon sit to the floor with his back against the wall. He could tell that the wound on his back was hurting him and couldn't help but feel bad for him. "Dillon?" he asked.

"What?" Dillon replied adjusting in his place.

"You said when I looked at your wound that this has happened to you before. What happened?" he asked. Ziggy knew that he was prying into Dillon's personal life, but he couldn't help but ask. In many ways he looked up to him, like he was his big brother or something and hated thinking that he had gone through something like this once before.

"I don't know." Dillon admitted sadly. "I just remember feeling this way before—a long time ago. I have no idea how or why it happened, I just know that it did." With that Dillon reached into his leather jacket to get something, and when he felt it wasn't there, he felt panic fill him.

"What? What is it?" Ziggy asked looking at him with concern.

Dillon hopped up from the floor feeling around his jacket quickly. "My watch…it's gone." The calmness in his voice really made Ziggy see how serious this is. He knew that if Dillon raised his voice to show what he was really feeling, he'd explode in panic.

"Okay…can't you just get another?" Ziggy asked trying to calm him. "They sell them all over Cor—"

"No!!" Dillon snapped at him, getting right up on the bars.

His outburst made Ziggy jump. "Okay! I get it! Clearly that watch has a high level of significance to you! I'm sorry!" Ziggy said to him defensively. All Dillon could do was kick the cell bars in fury. "Dillon, I'm sure it'll turn up—we'll find it." He assured him.

Dillon sighed and leaned his head against the bars, shutting his eyes tightly. This was all just one big mess to him and he had no idea what to do about it.

The two rangers heard a knock on the cells doors. When they turned to see what was causing it, they saw Tenaya hitting the CET against the bars.

"Did I come at a bad time?" She asked coldly.

"Well, if it isn't Little Miss Cheerful." Dillon said with a fake smile as he turned to her.

"Um…" Ziggy said nervously rising from his seat. "I wouldn't talk to her like that. Do you see what she's holding?"

Dillon didn't even look at the weapon; he just glared at her as he stood against the bars facing her. "You don't scare me." He said lowly to her with a smirk.

Tenaya grinned wickedly back at him. "I should." She hissed jabbing the CET through the prison bars and onto Dillon's leg. He exclaimed as he felt that stinging pain in his leg again. He quickly used his hand to smack it off of him. He back away a few steps rubbing his leg. All he could do was just glare at her. "Venjix told me to come and get you first, Black Ranger." She grinned.

"Lucky me." Dillon replied sarcastically.

Tenaya unlocked the cell doors and walked inside, grabbing Dillon tightly around the arm. "This will be a whole lot easier if you cooperate." She told him.

"I highly doubt that." Dillon replied.

As Tenaya began to pull Dillon out of his cell, Ziggy felt more panicked than ever. "Uh-oh…" he mumbled nervously. He knew that not too long from now Tenaya would come and get him next. "I'll…wait here…"

As Tenaya dragged Dillon alongside of her, he spotted an electronic keypad to the left of Ziggy's cell. "Ziggy." He said in a faint whisper. Ziggy turned to see Dillon gesturing towards the keypad with his eyes. Ziggy recognized this kind of keypad—he had hacked into them many times before. He nodded back at Dillon to let him know that he understood what he wanted him to do.

With that, Tenaya and Dillon were gone. Ziggy was alone in his cell while he examined the keypad. He reached his skinny arms through the bars to see if he would be able to reach it, and soon found out that he could.

He began to hit the numbers in sequence. "One hacked keypad coming right up." He said to himself with a sneaky grin. The only problem with this hacking plan was that doing this took a little while. Ziggy would just have to hope that he was fast enough to hack himself out before they did anything dangerous.


	7. Red and Yellow Realization

Summer stood in front of the large computer monitor in the lab section of The Garage. In a desk behind her was Doctor K, also typing on a computer of her own. On the screen in front of Summer showed a large map of Corinth. She typed the keys briskly as she searched for her lost friends.

"I have nothing so far." Summer said with a sigh. "How about you?" she asked Dr. K.

"Negative for me too I'm afraid. I'm sorry Summer, no matter how hard a I search I still can't find any signs of Dillon or Ziggy's Morphers." The doctor said sadly.

"Venjix must have their Morphers then, that or he has an invisible shield that's blocking the feed." Summer surmised.

"If there's one thing Venjix isn't it's stupid. I'm sure he covered all of his bases as far as Green and Black are concerned." Dr. K admitted.

"What we _do_ know is that Venjix has them. Now all we have to do is found out where. But unfortunately that's easier said than done." Summer told her.

"Summer…" Dr. K said rising from her desk and walking over to her. "You've been searching for them for four hours straight—you need to take a break." She said. "Maybe you could go hang out with Scott and Flynn, they're training downstairs."

Summer sighed but didn't take her eyes off of the screen. "I always beat Flynn when we spar. He holds back for some reason, I think it's because I remind him of his little sister." She went on with a small smile.

"What about Scott?" the Doctor asked.

The smile left Summer's face and her typing became slower. "I…really don't feel like seeing Scott right now." She admitted.

"You and Scott are fighting? Wow, I never would have seen that coming." K said with surprise. "What was the fight about?"

"When we were in battle earlier today, I said that I thought we should go check up on Dillon in his fight with Tenaya, but Scott ordered me to do otherwise. He said that Dillon was capable of handling her himself." Summer said as she turned to the doctor. "I always thought that teams were at their strongest together, not apart."

As she listened, Doctor K leaned against the desk. "In most cases that's true. You're right, teams should always work together on the battlefield, but Scott was only doing what he as a leader felt best. It was a mistake."

Summer sighed upon hearing these words. She knew in her heart of hearts that everything she said to Scott was out of line, she was just angry that two of her friends were captured and there was nothing she could do about it. Now it was like she lost another one of her friend's due to her being stubborn.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." She said. "I was wrong to say all the things that I did. I just hate that we're a broken team right now. I want all my friends to be safe again." Summer told her. "I'll go apologize to Scott."

"I may know a way to make it up to him." Doctor K told her, turning to the screen and typing. On the screen appeared the Garage. She pointed to Scott's red car to show her that he had a busted headlight. "See?" she asked pointing to the screen.

"What happened?" Summer asked in disbelief.

"I saw him kick it out after the fight the two of you had." K told her.

"You saw the fight?" Summer asked turning to her.

"I did. I saw it from screen three. The two of you both had very valid points, but I didn't want to get involved." She said.

"Until now?" Summer asked with a smile.

"Precisely." K said returning the smile with a nod. "You fix that light and I guarantee that Scott will forgive you. He'd forgive you no matter what you did—you like a sister to him."

Summer placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Thanks, Dr. K. I'll get started it right now." Summer said grabbing a toolbox from a nearby table. She made a beeline for the Garage.

Downstairs, Scott and Flynn were sparring with one another. Scott was throwing punch after punch Flynn's way. His punches came so fast that all Flynn could really do was defend himself. Fury is what fueled Scott's punches and it clearly showed in his fighting.

"Whoa! Simmer down there, man!" Flynn said throwing his hands up. When Scott realized what he was doing, he immediately stopped. He wasn't concentrating on his fighting, all he was thinking about was this fight with Summer. It killed him that someone he cared about thought so ill of him. All he wanted was for everyone to be back at The Garage, and the fight with her to be over with.

"Flynn, I'm sorry. I'm just angry about other things and I'm taking it out on you in our sparring. I'll stop." Scott said sadly. Flynn could see in his face that he was sincere, after all, Scott was a strong one but he was never viscous.

"What're you so angry about?" Flynn asked him.

Scott sighed sharply and ran his fingers through his hair. "It's just…I got into this big argument with Summer and now the light on my car is busted."

"Summer busted one of your lights?" Flynn said with surprise. "That thing's your pride and joy! I can't believe it."

Scott rolled his eyes at Flynn's words. "No, Summer didn't bust my light, _I _did _because_ of my fight with Summer." He corrected him.

"Oh, I was going to say…I know the lass is feisty but not to that degree. What got you so mad that you hurt your car?" the Blue Ranger asked him.

"She thinks it's my fault that Dillon and Ziggy were captured on that fight earlier today. She asked could we all go and check on Dillon and Tenaya and I said no because I thought that he could handle her himself. She just wanted to help him." Scott said. He sat down on the chair next to him with a sad look on his face. "I guess she was right."

Flynn patted Scott on the back and sat down next to him. "Come on, Scott, you know that Dillon and Ziggy would have been captured regardless if we jumped in or not." He assured him. "She's just upset that two of her buddies are gone. You know Summer, nothing is more important to her than her friends. If it were _you_ that was captured, I guarantee you that she'd be acting the same way. She meant nothing buy it."

"Man, this leader stuff is a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's like, no matter what call I make, someone could end up getting hurt or angry." Scott told him.

"That comes with being a leader though—you have to your team someone to love and hate all the time. But you're a good leader, Scott. I mean that." Flynn said with total sincerity. At this moment, Scott remembered why Flynn was his best friend—he could always pick him up when he felt down.

Scott let out a small sigh. "I wish it were easier sometimes." He admitted.

"We all do my friend, we all do." Flynn said with another slap on the back. "Come on, let me prove to you that Summer still likes you." He told him, grabbing Scott's arm, forcing him to go up the stairs with him.

"Let's go." Scott said with a feigned whine. "I need to fix my headlight anyways."

The two friends made their way up the stairs, it was a lot easier for Flynn not having to force him up there. "You know, Summer must've really gotten under your skin to make you break something on your car." He told him, and then heaved out a hard sigh. "That's girls for you."

"Tell me about it." Scott agreed. "Can't live with them or without them."

"I know!" Flynn said with a wide grin. "Isn't it great!" And with that, Scott couldn't help but laugh.


	8. Conversion

Tenaya continued to pull Dillon down a long and dark corridor. The overhead lights flickered, signaling that they were about to burn out. The ambiance it gave the long hallway was an eerie one.

As she kept her grip on the ranger, Tenaya held the CET dangerously close to him, ready to strike at any given moment. "Venjix has quite the plans for you and your little Green friend." She sneered lowly in Dillon's ear.

"You know, you're cute when you act all tough." Dillon joked, only showing her further that she didn't scare him even the slightest bit.

The two reached a small room that held about five Grinders. It was very dark here and the only light was the blinking one that hovered above a metal table with wires and straps around it. There were smaller tables next to the larger one, holding what appeared to be old switches and containers.

"Cozy." Dillon said sarcastically to her. "I see you've given me the deluxe suite."

Tenaya ignored his words and threw him into the room. "Sit down." She ordered him.

"I'd rather stand." Dillon said getting right up in her face.

"I said _sit down_." Tenaya demanded, her voice growing louder.

Dillon walked a few steps back from her. "Standing's better for you. Of course…" he began as he got into a fighting stance, "…so is fighting in this case."

Tenaya let out a loud and ugly chuckle. "We both know that you're too weak to fight me, and besides," she started, twirling the CET in her hands, "I have this little number to assist me." She stopped twirling her weapon and glared at him. "Do you really think you have a chance?" she asked.

"Let's find out." Dillon answered simply as he threw a punch right at her face. Tenaya ducked to avoid the blow and answered with a punch of her own. Dillon ducked and attempted a sweep kick, bringing her to the floor. She spun around on her back until she was on her feet again. She swung her leg high in a roundhouse kick, but Dillon promptly grabbed her ankle. She back flipped out of his grip; this however made her drop the CET to the floor. As she went for it, Dillon kicked it across the floor. He grabbed the wrist she used to reach for the weapon and flipped her behind him, making her crash into the table, breaking it. She lay on the floor stunned for a few moments.

Dillon looked at her pleased with his work. "Guess I'll be leaving now." He knew that his fighting would be a little off, but he never imagined that beating her would be so easy.

As he turned around to leave he felt a piercing pain in his back that he had felt in the warehouse yet again. Tenaya stood behind him with the CET in her hands and a horrible grin on hr face. She had grabbed the weapon while she was lying on the ground before.

"Not so fast, I'm not done with you yet." She hissed in his ear. She pressed the CET into his back harder as she spoke; she turned his body around and forced him into the metal table that was in the room. She aimed the CET at him while a pair of Grinders strapped him into it. They made the straps so tight they he couldn't budge, they would have been no problem to escape from if he had his normal strength, but that was something Tenaya had taken from him. "I warned you, ranger. You did this to yourself."

Dillon struggled to break free from the straps that confined him to the table, but soon found it to be useless. "I'll get you for this, Tenaya." He growled at her.

"That would be more convincing if you _weren't_ strapped to a table right now." She snapped back at him.

General Crunch soon walked into the room with a strange switch-like object in his hands. "Is our little guinea pig ready yet?" he asked excitedly.

Tenaya turned her attention from Crunch to the Black Ranger. "Ready and waiting."

"Goody!" Crunch said happily as he clapped his hands together. He then held forward the switch in his hands. "First we'll change the Black one, then move onto Green."

When Dillon heard this he felt himself freeze. He had totally forgotten that Ziggy was in his cell waiting to be drug in here next. "Ziggy…" he said softly to himself with worry. Ziggy may have gotten on his nerves a lot of the time, but deep down he cared about his safety, like he was his quirky little brother or something. "I hope you're able to break out of there..." He thought to himself.

Next thing Dillon saw was General Crunch walking over to him. The monster grabbed two strange wires with buds on the ends of them and placed them on both sides of Dillon's head. "Don't worry, ranger." Crunch said stifling his laughter, "This won't hurt…much."

Tenaya laughed along with her idiotic assistant. She always knew that he was a dunce, but now he had a plan that seemed to actually be working. She only hoped that Venjix knew that she was still the top one of his generals. She wouldn't let anyone upstage her—especially not Crunch.

"Here we go!" Crunch shouted happily, flipping the switch he held, activating the machine. A loud whirring filled the room. As soon as the machine was started, Dillon immediately felt his body tense. He felt strange surges flowing throughout his body. His head felt lightheaded and his mind started to drift. He wasn't sure where he was anymore; all he wanted was this machine to be stopped—fast. Dillon took a tight grip on the table to fight whatever effects this process may have on him.

"Won't be long now." Tenaya said evilly while she watched this event take place.

Meanwhile, in Venjix's prison cells, Ziggy stretched his arm as far as he could, tapping rapid numbers on the keypad. Sweat beaded off of his forehead as he pressed each key. After he typed in a few more codes, he backed away from the numbers and began to pace the floor.

"Come on, Ziggy, think, think!" He shouted at himself. He racked his brain trying to figure out the next sequence of numbers, knowing all the while that he was in a time crunch. He grabbed his hair in frustration. "Is it 53298761? Or 5329876_2_?"

His pacing became quicker and quicker as each second passed. "Okay!" he said to himself, stopping in his pacing tracks. "I'm just going to have to guess it. If I'm wrong, I'll have to start all over…and the alarms will go off." He said sounding discouraged. "Then Dillon and I are both done for."

He made his way back over to the keypad. He reached his arm through the bars again and began to hit the numbers, his hands shaking all the while. "Okay…here goes…5329876…2?" he asked himself pressing the two button on the pad. His eyes closed, expecting to hear the alarms to sound--but they didn't. It was the sweetest silence Ziggy had ever heard. The doors flew open in front of him. "I did it! It worked!" he cheered. "I'm the MAN!"

After a few moments of celebration, Ziggy bolted out of the cell. He ran down the same corridor that Tenaya had dragged Dillon down. When he remembered something, he stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. He saw he and Dillon's Morphers in the clear container. He picked up a brick from one of the cell walls that was broken in half on the ground; he threw it into the glass case, shattering it to bits. Ziggy grabbed both of the Morphers, slapping his on his wrist. "Green Ranger back in business!" he said happily, then headed back down to corridor to save his friend.


	9. Strength and Forgiveness

Scott and Flynn headed to the garage section of their base. They were trying to fin Summer and this was the only place left she could be. They were surprised when they looked around and didn't see her.

"Summer?" Scott called out. "Are you up here?"

They heard her voice come from the front of Scott's car. She rose from the ground with grease and dirt on her face holding a wrench. "Oh, it's you two!" She said happily as she made her way over to them.

"What were you doing down there?" Flynn asked with confusion.

"Well, Scott and I got into an argument earlier and I realized that I was…out of line." She went on with a sigh and then turned to her Red Ranger friend. "So I fixed your car to show you how sorry I am."

"You did?" Scott asked with a smile on his face. He couldn't believe that she would do something like that for him. From the looks of it, it wasn't an easy task for her. He really had no idea why she was covered in all that grease and dirt, but he could appreciate a good thing when he saw it. She did a really sweet thing for him.

Summer wiped her hands off on a rag she had in her back pocket, and then placed them on Scott's shoulders looking him in the eyes. "I'm sorry, Scott." She said. "I was wrong. Can you forgive me?"

"Are you kidding?" Scott asked her. "I was coming up here to apologize to you. I really am sorry too. I'll try to think more like a team leader from now on." He finished, hugging her. The fight was finally over between them.

"So did you have any luck locating Ziggy or Dillon?" Flynn chimed in.

"None." Summer said with a sigh. "Venjix has a block on their Morphers so that I can't get even the slightest signal."

"Wait, I may have an idea." Scott interjected, running upstairs to the lab, Flynn and Summer following close behind him. When they made it there, Scott made a beeline for the computers. "Instead of running a search on their Morphers, why don't we try to find them by using Dillon's Venjix hardware signals?" he suggested.

"Do you know how many readings we'd get if we ran a search for Venjix hardware at Venjix's actual base? The Grinders themselves are loaded with his data. We'd never find them." Flynn told him with discouragement.

Scott got a sly smile on his face showing he had and idea. "Not if we search for someone giving off _half_ of the Venjix readings."

Summer nodded in agreement. "That may work, but didn't Doctor K say that Dillon's hardware would be shut down due to the CET?" she asked.

"True, but the time that he's been shut down should nearly be over. What we should do is, wait for the CET effects to wear off of him and show us the signal we need, then send a portal for him and Ziggy to go through." Scott explained to them.

Flynn and Summer took a few moments to think over Scott's plan. "I like it." Flynn agreed.

"So do I." Summer added. "Let's begin searching for Dillon's half signals right away." She told them, heading for the other computer in the lab.

Scott grabbed her arm to stop her. "Summer?" he said.

"Yeah?" She replied, whipping around to him.

"Thanks for fixing my car. I...really appreciate it." he told her.

"You're a great leader--it's the least I could do." She smiled back at him.

Meanwhile, Flynn had been typing on the computers trying anything and everything he could to find Ziggy and Dillon. "I'm getting nothing so far except a bunch of Grinder readings." Flynn announced as he typed the keys.

"Keep looking. Leave no stone unturned, we have to do everything we can to find them. We have to teleport them here the second we get the signal." Scott instructed them as he headed to a computer himself.

Ziggy ran as fast as he could through the dark and winding corridors. He kept his Morpher close to his face shouting as loud as he could into it. "Scott, Flynn, Summer! Do you read me?!"

Due to the block that Venjix had on he and Dillon's Morphers at the time, he calls to them were wasted. He threw his hand down to his side in frustration as he continued to run. "Great! Here I am having to rescue Dillon all by myself! I'm the newest ranger—still getting my bearings, and I have to do this alone!" Ziggy whined to himself. "I just hope I can handle it."

"Ninety-seven percent complete!" General Crunch shouted happily. "In about three minutes or so, he'll be completely evil and on our side!"

Dillon's grip was tight on the table, trying to fight the pain away. Faint groans came from him while the machine continued it's task. He felt himself losing control of everything, his powers, his thoughts—even himself.

"Hurry!" Tenaya snapped at the General. "His strength will be returning in mere minutes!" the tone in her voice proved that she was worried this wouldn't be as successful as General Crunch made is sound.

"I'm going as fast as the machine will allow! Relax! It's now at ninety-eight percent!" Crunch cheered, prancing around the table Dillon was on.

Seconds later, Ziggy stormed into the room holding Dillon's Morpher. He looked over to see Dillon strapped to some strange metal table obviously in some sort of pain. He had no idea what they were doing to him, but he was determined to make it stop.

"What're you doing to him?!" he shouted at the fiends.

Tenaya whipped her glance over to him. "Don't worry," She said approaching him, "you're next!"

"Don't count on it sweetheart!" Ziggy said, activating his Morpher. "RPM—Get in gear!" he called out, but nothing happened, he was still in his human form.

Tenaya's looked at him unfazed. "You really thought you could morph…_here_?" she asked, gesturing to the room.

Ziggy laughed nervously. "That's not good…" he stammered looking at his Morpher in a panic.

Tenaya lunged at him, he promptly rolled out of the way. He saw that Crunch was holding a switch of some kind that he assumed had to be linked to what was happening to Dillon. He darted at Crunch, grabbing the switch from his metal hands.

"Hey!" The general cried. "Give that back!"

"Not a chance!" Ziggy retaliated. He then threw the switch to the ground and smashed it with his foot. Smoke and sparks exploded from the ruined device.

"No!!" Crunch screamed. "What have you done?!?!"

Suddenly, General Crunch's machine went completely haywire. Small explosions erupted from it at random points; smoke and small sparks flew all around as well. The smoke caused a faint fog to fill the room.

"Dillon!" Ziggy exclaimed. He went to run to save him from this dreaded machine, but a sea of Grinders grabbed him pulling him further and further away. Thinking quickly, he threw Dillon's Morpher over to him causing it to fall into his lap. "Just try and morph if you can, Dillon!" he shouted to his friend.

Dillon felt the Morpher fall into his lap. This made his eyes shoot open. He still needed a few moments to remember where he was and to get his bearings before he could help Ziggy.

Meanwhile, Tenaya, Crunch and the Grinders had Ziggy on the ropes. They threw him to the ground in a rage ready to end him right then and there. The evildoers all surrounded the Green ranger.

"Any last words before we destroy you, pathetic ranger?" Tenaya asked readying her fists.

"Uh…uh…" Ziggy mumbled in a full-fledged panic. "C-can I ca-call my mom t-to say goodbye?"

Tenaya and the other just snickered at him, encroaching on him closer and closer.

On the table, Dillon felt his powers returning to him. He felt more powerful than he had all day, aside from being a little jarred from Crunch's machine. He pulled his arms and legs from the straps that constricted him forcefully. He reached his arms up slowly and yanked the strange buds from the sides of his head. He sat up and saw what the others were doing to his friends—he was pissed.

The look on the Black Rangers face was that of pure rage. He grabbed the Morpher from his lap and threw it on his wrist. Saying nothing, he stood from the table.

"C-come on guys! Let's talk about this!!" Ziggy cried, holding up his arms in surrender. When he looked up he saw Dillon standing behind Tenaya and Crunch, and to him, Dillon seemed to be back to normal. "Um…I actually _do _have some last words I want to say to you all." Ziggy said slyly.

"And what's that?" Tenaya asked with annoyance.

"Nighty-night!" he replied with a playful wave.

"Huh?" Tenaya and Crunch said simultaneously. They turned around and exclaimed loudly when they saw that Dillon was behind them. They could tell in his face that his powers were back and he was furious.

"We're in trouble…" Crunch quivered as Dillon grinned at the pair devilishly.


	10. Escape Route

Scott, Summer and Flynn glared at the monitor before them. Suddenly, in the midst of the wave of Venjix hardware signals, one reading showed up as half.

"There he is!" Scott said pointing at the screen.

"Do you think Ziggy's with him?" Flynn asked.

"Let's hope so." Scott said hopefully. "Summer, prepare the portal for them immediately." He ordered.

"I'm on it!" She answered, typing briskly on the keyboard next to him.

"Okay. We only have one shot at this. We need to try and get them both through before the portal closes." Scott said.

Summer then made a portal for Ziggy and Dillon to be extracted at as well as the one they would get to The Garage through. A large purple portal with blue surges appeared behind the rangers at the base.

"Portal one is ready. The rest is up to them." Scott told them.

In the machine room, Dillon grabbed General Crunch and Tenaya by their backs and heaved them into the wall next to him. The two villains lay on the ground stunned for a moment, while Ziggy took on the Grinders.

During the battle, a portal resembling the one at the Garage appeared in front of the Black and Green Rangers.

Ziggy threw the Grinders off of him and spotted the portal. "What's that thing?" he asked.

"A teleportation portal. We have to go through it—it may be our only way out of here." Dillon explained to him.

"'Out of here'? Sounds good to me!" Ziggy exclaimed. He ran over to Tenaya and Crunch who were injured on the floor. He hovered over them in a mocking manner. "See? _This_ is what happens when you mess with the Green and Black Rangers. Maybe next time you—" he tried to go on, but he felt Dillon grab his shirt and pull him through the portal with him.

As soon as the two hoped through the portal, it disappeared behind them—like it was never even there in the first place. Tenaya and Crunch stood and dusted themselves off. They ached all over from what the Black Ranger had done to them, and what they feared more was what Venjix was going to do to them.

"Venjix isn't going to like this…" General Crunch whimpered.

Tenaya didn't answer him. She just glared to where Rangers Green and Black had escaped. She rubbed her shoulder lightly. It still hurt from when the Black Ranger flipped her earlier. "This is far from over." She said with a hiss.

Dillon and Ziggy landed on the floor of the lab with a thud next to the others. Scott, Summer and Flynn ran to help them up. The two dusted themselves off and appeared to be in good shape from what the others could tell, and that made them feel relieved.

"You guys alright?" Summer asked looking at them from head to toe.

Dillon seemed to separate from the others he was hunched over running his fingers through his hair. Ziggy on the other hand seemed as peppy as ever.

"Yeah, thanks to you three. Assuming you're the ones that sent us the portal." Ziggy said smiling at them.

"It was all Summer's doing." Scott told them, patting her on the back.

Summer let out a small chuckle. "It was nothing, and I couldn't have done it without Scott and Flynn. We'd do anything to save you…two." She began; she trailed off when she noticed something strange going on with Dillon. She walked over to him slowly. "Are…you okay, Dillon?"

She and the other rangers saw Dillon hunched over with his hands on his head, his face was hidden and his breathing seemed to be ragged. They noticed that he was shaking a little bit as well.

"'Is he okay?'" Ziggy said quoting Summer. "Of course he is! He's the other one who helped save my hide!" he went on slapping Dillon's shoulder playfully.

After he did so, Dillon's head shot up to look at the rangers. He looked nothing like himself; his posture was horribly slouched, his hair was turned all over the place, and his eyes had went from the soft brown they usually were to a dark gold, topaz-like color. The wicked grin he had on his face shook all the rangers to their cores.

"Or not! After all, what do I know, I was captured." Ziggy said taking a few nervous steps back.

"Dillon?" Summer asked again, walking closer to him still. Scott grabbed her arm to stop he from getting any closer to him. Scott could tell in Dillon's face that something was seriously wrong. He pulled Summer behind him and walked closer to him himself.

"What did they do to you at Venjix's lair, Dillon?" He asked firmly.

Dillon glared back at the Red Ranger with crazed eyes. "Nothing I couldn't handle!!" he screamed as he lunged at the rangers.

The four scattered to avoid his rapid punches, for what was behind them was both heightened strength, and speed. He seemed to be able to attack all four of them at once no matter how far they separated themselves. Scott and Flynn looked to one another with a nod; they knew what they needed to do next. They darted at Dillon and grabbed each one of his arms, trying their best to restrain him.

"What're you doing attacking us?! We're your teammates you brute!" Flynn yelled hanging on desperately to Dillon's flailing arms.

"Not anymore!" Dillon scowled, throwing Scott and Flynn off of him. He sent them crashing into the wall. Summer ran over to Scott, and Ziggy to Flynn to help them to their feet.

"Are you okay, guys?" She asked them. The two answered with a 'Yes' quickly and then ran at the Black Ranger once more. Summer turned to the Green Ranger next to her. "Ziggy, what did they do to him?" she asked with haste.

"I-I don't know! They took him into this room and hooked him up to this strange machine. I'd never seen anything like it. He seemed pretty out of it when I made it to him, but as soon as I could, I grabbed the switch that powered the machine and smashed it." Ziggy explained quickly, hoping that something he said would help them solve this problem. "After I did, the machine short circuited."

"We need to know what that machine did to him!" Summer exclaimed. She didn't know what to do. Scott and Flynn were struggling to restrain Dillon, and poor Ziggy still seemed freaked out about being captured earlier. A thought struck her when she remembered what she had in her pocket. She pulled it out and prayed it would do the trick. She made her way back to where Scott and Flynn were holding him.

"Summer, stay back!" Scott screamed at her.

"We can't hold him much longer!" Flynn added with a shout.

"Trust me." She said softly to them. She walked up to Dillon and slowly opened the silver pocket watch she held in her hands. The music filled the room with its light melody. When it hit Dillon's ears, he looked up and froze for a moment. He just stared at the object intently.

"Do you remember this?" she asked sweetly. "It's one of your keepsakes. You look at it all of the time." She then handed the watch to her friend.

Dillon felt the object fall into his hands and it stirred something inside of him. This little watch made him feel better just looking at it. After giving Summer a glance, he cried out and fell forward, the grip Scott and Flynn had on him prevented him from falling to the floor. He jerked out of their grip and went slowly down to his knees, holding his head. After shaking his head a few time, he looked back up at Summer. All of his featured had returned back to normal—especially his gorgeous eyes.

"Is that you, Dillon?" Summer asked while looking at him.

"Yeah." He answered with a sigh.

"What _was_ that?" Scott asked helping Dillon to his feet.

When Dillon got his balance back he looked at his hands in disbelief. "I…don't know."

Scott and Summer shot each other a worried glance. They had no idea what had just happened or why, but the one thing they did know was the being behind all of this—Venjix.


	11. Dane Emerges

Inside of Venjix's lair, Tenaya 7 and General Crunch walked shamefully back to face their master. Tenaya still rubbed her shoulder from where she had been thrown, and Crunch was walking with a limp beside her. They entered the room and saw the giant red machine that was their master in front of them.

"So…" Venjix's loud voice said. "Where are my two new rangers?"

"U-uh, umm…" Crunch stammered. "Th-there…uh…"

"General Crunch!" Venjix shouted at him. "Where are my rangers!!" his voice was growing angrier with each word.

"The Green Ranger escaped somehow and interrupted our procedure." Tenaya explained with hesitation. "His little teammates sent a portal for him and Ranger Black and they hopped through it—there."

"What?!" Venjix's loud voice boomed, "How could you _possibly_ of screwed this up! It was flawless!"

"We're so sorry, your Venjixness! I guess that keypad on Green's cell was faulty." Crunch told him worriedly.

"Either that or he's a computer geek." Tenaya chimed in.

"However," Crunch went on, "the machine reached ninety-eight percent before it crashed."

"Crunch!" Tenaya snapped at him, she felt that his ignorance was only making things worse.

"Wait!" Venjix intervened. "You said it got to ninety-eight percent? We may not have a problem after all." The master told them slyly.

"And how do you figure that?" Tenaya asked smart-alecky. She never was afraid to mouth of to her master when she felt it was necessary. He may have something over her by being her master, but she had something on her side too—her powers.

"Ranger Black in constructed from a product of my own design. If you say he was at ninety-eight percent when the procedure was interrupted, that means that deep down, the evil we wanted is there." Venjix told them proudly. "Chances are he won't be able to fight off the evil within him for long. Eventually…it will consume him."

"Yay!" Crunch cheered! "So my plan wasn't a complete failure after all!" he began prancing about the room.

"Wait!" Tenaya interjected. "What do we do about the other rangers until then?" she asked.

"We sit back and watch him fight the darkness _and_ his friends." Venjix answered, sounding more evil than he ever had. "After a while he'll have no choice but to join us." Tenaya got a wicked grin on her face when she heard these words. And Crunch continued to prance about the room.

In the infirmary of the Garage, Dillon sat on a table with his shirt off while Summer looked over his back wound. She placed alcohol and gauze all over it, while Flynn held a bright blue light that he shined over his body to see if he had anything in his circuits that shouldn't be. The device gave off a slight whirring noise. Ziggy just watched everything around him quietly while Scott questioned Dillon.

"What the first thing you remember when you escaped Venjix's machine." The Red Ranger asked.

"Grabbing Ziggy and getting out of there through the portal the three of you sent." Dillon replied. He didn't even look Scott in the eye. He was afraid that he'd look down on him since he just ambushed his friends--he couldn't look at any of them.

"Do you remember anything they told you about the machine and what it does?" Scott continued.

Dillon thought, thought hard. It was hard to remember anything before he pulled himself off of that table. His head was so scattered. His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a sharp sting in his back—Summer had just applied the alcohol to his wound and he winced.

"Sorry!" Summer apologized pulling the alcohol swab away.

He turned around a little so she could hear him. "It's fine." He assured her, and then his mind went back to Venjix's base. He tried to remember what Tenaya had said to him about what the machine was planned to do. When he finally remembered, his eyes got wide.

"What?" Scott asked noticing his friend's change of expression. "What is it?"

Dillon finally looked his friend in the eyes. He hated every part of what he was about to say, but he said it. "He wanted to turn Ziggy and I…evil. He wanted us to work for him and be his own rangers."

Ziggy's head whipped around upon hearing Dillon's words. He and the others had a look of utter shock on their faces. "Evil? Me? I don't even like returning something to the store, much less attacking innocent people!"

Flynn finished his work with the light and turned it off with a sigh. "His story checks out. I'm getting all sorts of foreign readings from him. I know they're connected to his little outburst earlier."

"Look, I'm sorry!" Dillon snapped, standing to his feet. He grabbed the black shirt next to him and threw it on, his black jacket following. "I know I was out of it earlier, but as you can see, I'm fine now." He told them gesturing to himself to prove his point. "I'll…be more careful."

Deep down, he really had no idea what was going to happen, or if it was even safe for the others to be around him. All he knew was that he wanted to be alone, alone and far away from any innocent people. Dillon hoped that if he were to have another outburst like that, the others would know how to handle it.

"I'll be in my room." he informed them, heading up the stairs.

Scott turned to his three teammates after he left. "Do you really think he's alright now?"

"Don't think so." Flynn answered flatly. "The negative readings I got off of him were extremely high—it's like it consumed him for the most part. I won't be one bit surprised if this happens again."

"Let's just make sure that we're the ones he goes off on and not innocent people." Summer said, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets.

Scott, Summer and Flynn all realized Ziggy being strangely quiet in the corner of the room. They saw him just tapping the keys of the computer before him aimlessly. This wasn't like Ziggy at all, he was always much more…flamboyant.

Summer walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay, Ziggy?" she asked him.

"Huh? Me? I'm fine—perfect! A-okay!" Ziggy replied to her with a very fake sounding tone.

"Your mind's off somewhere, Ziggy, it's obvious. Tell us what's wrong." Scott said in a caring manner.

"I…just can't help but feel useless to this team. I mean, I get captured on, like, my third mission, and I can't even save my own teammate before Venjix and his cronies fry him. See, useless." Ziggy explained to them sadly. The sadness in his voice was like none the rangers had heard before.

"Stop." Summer said holding a hand up. "You're far from useless, Ziggy." She assured him. "We really need you on this team. What happened to Dillon was an accident—we'll figure all of this out, but we need you to help do it."

"Aye," Flynn chimed in, "don't beat yourself up about this. Venjix did all of this, not you."

"We just need to get Dillon the help he needs." Scott began, and then a loud crash came from Dillon's room. "And fast." He added. Then he and the others darted as fast as they could up the stairs.

When they made it to where Dillon's room was, they saw that it was empty. His lamp had fallen to the floor and the bulb inside it shattered. His dresser was knocked over as well. The four rangers walked into the room cautiously.

"Dillon?" Summer asked aloud. Suddenly, a harsh blast came from above them, nailing Summer in the knee. She shrieked in pain as she hit the floor, grabbing her knee.

"Summer!" Scott screamed as he knelt beside her.

"Are you alright?!" Flynn asked her.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. It only got my leg, nothing serious." She said with a pained voice.

In one swift motion, Dillon dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of them. He was in his ranger form and rested his Rocket Blaster on his shoulder.

"Aw…" he taunted at them while he watched Summer struggle to get to her feet. Scott was helping her stand, she held onto his arm tightly. "Does little Ranger Yellow have a booboo?" he mocked at her. He tapped the blaster against his shoulder as he began to walk around the room. "This is more of a man's field, don't you think, sweetheart?" he asked turning to her.

"What's wrong with you?!" Ziggy yelled at him. "Summer's your friend!"

Dillon turned his head over to Ziggy's direction. He pointed the large black weapon at him. "You wanna be next, Green Boy?" he asked evilly.

"N-no—no! I'm good." Ziggy answered cowering back a few steps.

Flynn stepped forward glaring at the man in black furiously. "What's happened to you, Dillon?!"

"How can you open fire on your own teammate!" Scott shouted loudly at him, all the while keeping a tight grip around Summer's waist.

"That's not Dillon." Summer said with a wince. "It can't be."

"What?!" Scott asked in pure disbelief. He, Flynn and Ziggy all shot her a strange glance. It had to be Dillon; he was the only one who could operate the Series Black Bio-Armor.

"As much as I hate to admit it, your little Yellow friend is right. The one you call 'Dillon' is the weaker side of me—he's a nuisance." The strange ranger told them.

"What're you talking about?! We saw Dillon attack us plain as day earlier!" Scott shouted at him.

"I'm afraid I have to take credit for that, you see, Dillon and I share the same body now, but by no means do we share the same mind. Whereas he wants to protect the world from struggle and strife, I want to crush it." The Black Ranger said making a tight fist.

"And if you aren't Dillon, what exactly do you call yourself?" Flynn asked with annoyance in his voice.

"Just call me Dane." He said, "Think of me as the person that will end up destroying you and your friends."

Scott guided Summer over to be held by Flynn and Ziggy. Then he stood right in front of Dane, not amused by his actions one bit. "Flynn, Ziggy, go back to the infirmary to treat Summer's leg." He ordered, never taking his eyes off of the evil ranger in front of him.

"But, Scott—" Ziggy began.

"Just…go." He ordered, turning around to them. "That's an order." Summer just had a sad look on her face. She was worried about Dillon and Scott at the same time. She wanted nothing more than to help Scott and get Dillon back to normal, but her leg was killing her and needed treatment for it, so she didn't protest Scott's orders.

"Aye." Flynn sighed. Then he and Ziggy helped Summer limp to the infirmary.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into Red Ranger." Dane hissed at him, readying his Rocket Blaster.

"I'll take the risk." Scott said simply. He pulled out his Cell Morpher and slid the correct key inside it. "RPM—Get in gear!" he called out. Then in one swift motion he was morphed into his Red Ranger form. He equipped his Street Saber and aimed it at Dane.

Upon seeing Scott's weapon, Dane cocked his head to the side. "If that's how you want to play." He said throwing his Rocket Blaster to the side and pulling out his Nitro Sword. The two rangers aimed their swords at one another, engaging in a stalemate for a few moments—just circling one another.

In a flash, the two lunged forcefully at one another, their blades clanging loudly against each other. Each ranger pushed against the other's sword as hard as they could. Dane pushed full force against Scott, causing him to walk backwards until he crashed his back into the wall.

"Do you really think you stand a chance against me?" Dane growled at him. "If you're smart, you'll just go and help your little Yellow friend like the others did!"

"No!" Scott yelled back at him. "You've hurt two of my friends now, and I won't stop until you let Dillon go!"

Scott pushed himself off of the wall, running at Dane swinging his weapon as hard as he could. Dane jumped backwards to avoid his strikes, crouched, and sweep kicked Scott in the ankles, bringing him to the floor. Scott lay on the ground, his back on fire. Dane looked down at the ranger and pointed his sword at him.

"Why do you care what happens to him anyways?! It's obvious you hate him! I think it's because you're threatened by him! That he has more power than you do!" Dane sneered at him evilly.

"It's not like that!" Scott yelled back. "Dillon and I may argue, but he's my teammate and I'm the leader. I have to protect him and my team at all costs!"

Suddenly, Dane turned around mysteriously. Scott gathered himself to his feet as fast as he could muster.

"Well, that's the thing," Dane said, turning to Scott, flipping his sword into blaster mode in one swift move, "Black's not your teammate anymore." He said coldly, firing the blaster rapidly at Scott. The blasts caught Scott off guard, so they nailed him. He was sent slamming into the floor, demorphing in the process. His Street Saber slid across the floor away from him. Scott grabbed his side as he groaned on the floor. Dane walked over to him once again, and aimed the blaster down at him.

"Looks like your team will be minus one ranger." Dane told him, his finger hovering over to trigger. "Goodbye…Ranger Red."

Before he could fire the weapon, two laser blasts clipped him on both of his shoulders, making him drop his weapon and stagger back. Scott looked behind him to see Ziggy and Flynn in their ranger forms holding smoking blasters.

"Step away from our leader." Flynn warned the Black Ranger.

"Y-yeah. What _he_ said." Ziggy added meekly.

The Green and Blue Rangers helped Scott get to his feet. "Where's Summer?" he asked.

"She's resting her leg. We thought you could have used some help up here." Flynn told hi, still aiming the blaster at the one in black.

"Well, you came just in time." Scott said with a sigh of relief.

Dane dusted the smoke from his shoulders and turned to the three rangers, their blasts didn't seem to faze him at all, and all they did was knock him off balance. "Couldn't fight me alone, huh? You had to get your cronies to come and rescue you?" The Black Ranger grabbed his Rocket Blaster from the floor and walked towards the rangers. "Fine. I'll destroy all of you at once instead of one at a time." He hissed.

A few steps in he stopped in his tracks, dropping his weapon to the floor, crying out loudly. He fell hard to his knees, breathing hard and quickly. His ranger powers left him.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" Ziggy asked.

"I think he's changing back." Flynn said to the others.

After a few long seconds, the cries ceased, and Dillon looked up at his friends. His eyes were brown again, his hair was back to normal and he was panting softly.

Scott walked over to him carefully. "Dillon, is that you? Are you alright?" he asked in a friendly tone of voice.

Dillon didn't say anything; he just nodded in response to Scott's questions. He was looking at his hands, shaking slightly. He remained on his knees and after a beat he finally spoke.

"What…what happened? What did I—he do?" Dillon asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer. He knew that someone else was making him do things to harm others; he just hoped that it didn't get to the point where someone was seriously hurt.

Scott, Flynn and Ziggy all looked at one another and were silent. They debated on the fact of telling Dillon what happened to Summer's leg. It wasn't serious but they knew that he really had a soft spot for her and that he'd never forgive himself if he hurt her in any way—his fault or not.

Then Summer walked into the room with a small limp. Her leg was wrapped in gauze underneath her pant leg and she used a crutch to get around. "Welcome back, Dillon." She said softly. She was so thrilled to see in his eyes that he was back.

Dillon looked at her and when he saw her injured leg and her crutch, his eyes widened. He knew that he had done that to her. He knew that in his life he had let people down, but never had he been the one to inflict pain on people. This was made him feel worse than a failure; it made him feel like a villain.


	12. Late Night Regret

At the Venjix barricades, Tenaya 7, General Crunch and General Shifter all stood at attention to their master. They had no idea what he wanted to see them for, they just hope that it would end with them being blasted.

"You called for us, Master Venjix?" Shifter asked with a bow.

"Yes, I have a little helper to aid you in your quest to defeat the rangers." Venjix told them as he sent his large claw to pull a monster out of the pit beside him. What the claw pulled out was a strange sight. It was a robot that resembled a wolf. However, it was spilt right down the middle vertically. The left side of the bot looked like a tame, gray wolf. The eyes were a pale blue, and the look on his face was soft and not alarming. On the right side of the monster, the fur was a darker gray and all askew. The eyes were a sapphire color and cold looking. Sharp white fangs curved out of its mouth. Whereas the monster was covered in fur, it had the legs of a human, like a wolf-man.

"Duo Wolf-bot, at your service!" the weird monster yelled, getting into a fighting stance.

"What is _that_?" Tenaya said with distaste. She thought this monster, like the others, looked completely ridiculous, and didn't look to be any sort of threat to the rangers. "Is this a monster or a failed art project?" she asked looking at him from head to toe.

"Quiet, Tenaya!" Venjix shouted at her. She just folded her arms and rolled her eyes at him. "Duo Wolf, I want you to keep the rangers busy until the Black Ranger has completely transformed over to our side. Use any force necessary to complete your mission." He explained to the new ally of his.

"Got it." Duo Wolf replied with a bow of honor. "I'll make sure those pesky rangers stay out of our way."

"I'm counting on you. Now go." Venjix ordered him.

"Yes, sir." Dou Wolf answered proudly. He exited the room ready to do whatever he needed to make his master proud.

"With this extra source of power on our side, the rangers won't be able to protect Corinth _and_ their friend. It's only a matter of time." Venjix said happily.

It was a little after midnight at The Garage. The moon hung high and full up in the sky and the only sound that could be heard was the faint song of crickets. Dillon was up in his room packing a small black bag full of clothes and essentials. He was trying very hard to not make any noise; he didn't want to wake the rangers. After the day he had given them he knew that they needed their rest.

When he was finished packing he left his room, closing the door slowly behind him. He threw the bag over his shoulder and headed down the stairs carefully making sure that he didn't make any noise. Ziggy was asleep on a cot in the Garage because they hadn't finished making a room and getting a bed for him. Dillon would have to sneak past him to make it outside.

He crept past Ziggy quietly, and was just out the door when he heard a soft voice a little ways behind him.

"Going somewhere?" Summer asked him from the top of the stairs. She had on long white pants and a pale yellow tank top.

Dillon didn't turn to face her—he couldn't, not after what he had done to her earlier. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Yes…away." He answered sadly.

"You can't just run away." She told him.

"I'm not running away, I'm just trying to keep all of you safe…from me." Dillon said softly. Summer heard the sheer shame he had in his voice. It was obvious that he was torturing himself with thought of what he had done while Dane had his hold over him. He didn't think it was anybody's fault but his.

"Dillon, we _are_ safe. You're our friend, you're just a little lost right now—let us help you." She said sweetly.

"Take a look at you're leg, Summer. How can you look at what I did to you and not think I'm dangerous?" Dillon asked her, his voice growing louder, wracked with guilt. He still wasn't able to look at her, no matter how much he wanted to.

Summer hated seeing him like this. Usually she was the one that was able to get through to him, but it didn't seem to be the case this time. She just wanted him to look at her so that maybe she could take some of he guilt away. So she devised a small plan. "Oh, no!" She said with a somewhat fake tone. "I'm falling!" she continued as she fell forward over the railing.

Dillon didn't think about anything else in that moment. He just whipped around, dropping his bag, and ran over to her as fast as he could. He caught her in his arms and looked at her, just realizing that she had fake the whole thing.

"I had to get you to look at me somehow." She smiled at him.

Dillon couldn't help but just gaze in her eyes for a moment—it was if he was lost in their beauty. She gazed back at him and before she knew it, his lips were touching hers, kissing her gently. When he realized what he had done, he pulled away from her after gently helping her to her feet.

"We better be quiet or we'll wake Ziggy." He said quickly. He grabbed his bag from the floor and turned to leave again.

"Don't go Dillon…please." She asked him in a pleading tone.

He turned back to her with a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry, Summer, it's not safe to be around me. Next time I may do more than a leg injury."

"But it's not you, it's Dane. I know that you would never hurt anyone." Summer told him.

"I may not—but I can't control what Dane does. And until I can, I can't risk hurting anyone…especially you. I care too much to let that happen." He admitted to her. Dillon had finally let himself care about the people he had come to know and care about. He couldn't put his only family in any danger. This was the only way. "Goodbye, Summer." He said to her, and then left The Garage without another word.

"Oh, Dillon…" She said softly to herself. Then she noticed Ziggy turning in his sleep, she hoped that she hadn't woken him. When he turned, a book fell from his cot and landed on the floor. Summer limped her way over to pick it up for him. When she did, she noticed the cover. It was the 'Jekyll and Hyde' novel he had been going on about, and she saw that the man on the left seemed good and pure of heart, whereas the other man seemed angry and full of hatred. She ran her fingers over the cover lightly and that's when she realized—Dane was like Dillon's Hyde. She just stared at the cover, then to where Dillon had just left. She didn't know what to do.

Dillon threw his pack through the open window of his car. It landed in the passengers seat while he climbed behind the wheel. He put the car in drive and speeded off. Leaving Corinth wasn't really a choice at the moment; he knew that any exits he could use were closed off. He had no idea where he was going; all he knew was that he had to get himself away from anyone he could harm. He guided the car through a secluded forest where he couldn't be found. Trees were few and far between here but if he could easily hit one if he wasn't careful.

Dillon looked at the speedometer in front of him; it was nearing ninety and still climbing. The grip he had on the wheel was tight, so tight that it felt as if he'd snap it off. But he had to get away and fast.

The Black Ranger began to feel strange again, a feeling that only meant that Dane was emerging again. He peered into the rearview mirror to see that his eyes were changing back to the horrible golden-like shade. He gritted his teeth and pounded the steering wheel. His head began to pound with Dane's horrid thoughts.

"No, not now." He pleaded with himself, "_Please_ not now." He hung on as long as he could, trying with everything in him not to lose himself to this horrible creature. Dane, however was strong, he wasn't going to just fade away. He was bound and determined to get out and wasn't going to quit until he did so.

The dark car began to spin out of control. It skidded dangerously along the grass until it finally crashed into a tree. The driver's side had collided with the tree and was badly dented inward. The hood of the vehicle was opened slightly with smoking flowing from it. This crash would most likely have killed the average human, but luckily for the Black Ranger—he wasn't one.

The passenger's side of the door flew open, and out came Dane. He had kicked the door out to escape from the car and had no noticeable injuries. When his feet hit the grass, there he was, crazy hair, dark eyes, slouched posture and all. He turned to look at the metal mess that was now Dillon's car. He cracked his neck to the side and twisted his arm a little.

"Oops." He said sarcastically. He turned and walked slowly away from the car. A sudden portal appeared releasing a monster, which Dane soon collided with. The two creatures fell to the ground. Dane grunted angrily and pulled out his Nitro Blaster. He aimed it at the monster. "Who are you?!" he demanded. "Did you follow me?"

Duo Wolf gathered himself to his feet, extending his arms out in defense. "N-no! Please, d-don't shoot! I'm here to help you! Venjix sent me!"

Dane looked at the monster for a few moments. He never thought that Venjix would send such a cowardly monster to aid him in destroying the rangers. What he did know was that this so called 'monster' posed as no threat to him, so he retracted his weapon.

"Venjix, huh?" Dane said, tapping the blaster on his shoulder. "Little does he know that I don't need any help. I can handle Black and those other rangers myself." He added, walking away.

"Wait, where're you going?!" Duo Wolf asked nervously. Venjix would fry him if he screwed this up, and the last thing he wanted was to be destroyed over a ranger that wouldn't cooperate.

"Back to handle the rangers. Little Dillon here thought running away would get rid of me," Dane said patting his chest, "he was dead wrong."

"Wait!" The wolf monster called out to him. "You can't go back yet! The rangers may be expecting you. Let _me_ go ahead of you and wear them down first!"

Dane paused and turned around to look the wolf beast over. "What're you supposed to be anyways?" he asked.

"I'm Venjix's newest robotic gem—Duo Wolf! Twice the beast, twice the personality, twice the power!" the monster boasted.

"Yeah and twice the ignorance." Dane sneered. After a moment he sighed, "Fine—go. But you better wear them down fast. I don't like to be kept waiting."

"You go it!" Duo Wolf responded happily as he ran on ahead to battle the rangers.

Dane watched him run off in disgust. He felt himself jerk forward a bit and his hands started to shake again. His eyes flickered slightly was well. He took grip on his head, closing his eyes and shook it forcefully. "No." he growled. "I'm not letting you come back…not yet."

Dillon was fighting to come back, and Dane knew that. The will of Dillon was strong and he had to fight to keep him at bay. But unfortunately, Dane had the upper hand at the moment and there wasn't anything Dillon could do to stop him.


	13. A Battle for Control

It was early morning at the Garage and the four rangers were waking up to get ready for their day. Scott let out a yawn and rubbed his eye as he went to wake everyone up. When he made it to Dillon's room, he knocked.

"Dillon? Come on, man it's time for all of us to get up." When he got no response, he knocked again. "Dillon. You can't sleep all day." He told him. When he still didn't get a response, he opened the door to see that the room was empty. His eyes got wide and he darted down the stairs.

"Ziggy, Flynn, Summer!" he called out to them. "Dillon's gone!"

When he made it downstairs he saw that Ziggy was still fast asleep on the couch. He ran over to him, shaking him gently to wake him from his slumber. Ziggy jolted awake.

"Get away! Get your giant flippers off me!" Ziggy cried, flailing his arms. He noticed Scott raising an eyebrow at him and realized that he was awake. He stood and cleared his throat. "I was having a bad dream…that a…penguin was…was chasing me." He admitted with humiliation. "I'm good now."

"Riiiight." Scott said with a slow nod.

Then Flynn and Summer came from their rooms looking down at them from the balcony. Summer was walking without a crutch at this point but she still had a slight limp to her walk. She leaned against Flynn for leverage.

"What's all the fussing about?" Flynn asked. "It's early." He said looking at his watch.

"What's going on?" Summer asked.

"Dillon's gone! I went to his room to wake him up and he was gone." Scott yelled as he began to pace." We should've had a watch on him!"

He made his way to the computer in the room and began to type and run a search on where he might be.

"Well, he couldn't have gotten far, I mean we _are_ in a domed city after all." Flynn stated, helping Summer get down the stairs.

Suddenly, Doctor K walked into the room with her clipboard in tow. "With the series Black Bio-Hardware he could escape the city through the flame thrusters that go off every two seconds. Especially with his ability to activate his Invincibility Shield." She explained.

"We just have to find him, and do so as quickly as possible." Scott said with haste. He couldn't believe that he had let something like this happen. After all of the attacks that have happened because of this Dane person, he should have locked Ranger Black in some sort of room. But Scott didn't want to do that to Dillon—he had enough worries.

Ziggy stared at the ground shoving his hands in his pockets. "I don't see how he was able to leave without waking me. I'm not usually a heavy sleeper."

"You must've been pretty tired, what with all of those penguins chasing after you." Scott said with a smirk.

Flynn and Summer stopped on the stairs in confusion. "What'd we miss?" Flynn asked with confusion.

"Nothing, nothing!" Ziggy answered quickly. "I-I'm not afraid of penguins and their big flippers or anything…" he trailed off.

"Aaanyways…" Scott went on, "We need to locate him before any civilians get involved. How could he leave without any of us knowing?"

"I saw him leave." Summer admitted, coming off of the stairs.

Scott turned his head to her in frustration. "What?! Why didn't you say anything?" he yelled.

"He felt he put us at risk here." Summer told him. "He wanted to get away from everyone—even us."

"Before that split personality of his wailed on us again, I get it." Flynn stated nodding his head.

Summer pulled Ziggy's novel from her back pocket and showed it to them. "It's exactly like this story." She told them.

Scott walked over to her and took the book from her hands. He looked at the cover carefully. " 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'?" he asked. "So you're saying that Dillon is like Jekyll and Dane is like Hyde?"

"It makes sense." Ziggy answered for her. "I mean he _is_ a good man that was hit with an evil alter. His evil side even goes by a different name and everything."

"Freaky." Flynn chimed in. "So…how does the book end? Does this Jekyll man prevail?"

"Uh…not exactly." Ziggy said sucking air through his teeth. "It's not exactly a Disney story. Neither good nor evil really prevails—rather they both lose."

"So how do you suggest we save Dillon and destroy Dane?" Scott asked him.

"That I _don't_ know." Ziggy said with disappointment. He seemed to know a lot about everything, but not this. He had read that book inside and out many times, and all he hoped was that Dillon's situation didn't end like the book did.

Suddenly the alarms sounded alerting the rangers to trouble. They all ran to the large monitor to see where the attacks were and who was causing them.

"Looks like that'll have to wait. A strange wolf-like monster is attacking in sector E-3. And don't worry Ziggy, I see now sign of penguins." K joked. Ziggy just feigned laughter with a dirty look on his face.

"Let's move out, guys. Summer, maybe you should sit this one out until your leg heals a little better. I don't want to set you back in your recovery." Scott informed her with a pat on the shoulder.

"Okay." She answered with a little disappointment. "I'll wait here, and who knows, maybe Dillon will come back." Scott just glared at her worriedly. He knew what happened the last time she was face to face with Dane, and if Dillon had no control over him, he didn't want her to be in danger while they were gone. "Don't worry," She assured him, "if he comes, I'll call you."

"Please do." He said to her. "Come on guys." He said to the Blue and Green Rangers. Then he, Flynn and Ziggy hopped on their vehicles and drove out of the Garage.

"So…" Summer said sitting down at a table. "What should we do until they come back, Doctor K?"

"Just hope that what you said_ doesn't _happen." The Doctor answered flatly.

Scott, Flynn and Ziggy's calls led them to a large park. Innocents fled in all directions to get away from the strange wolf beast. Mothers grabbed their children as they scattered off.

"That's right! You better run!" Duo Wolf shouted at the frightened people.

"End of the line, chump!" Scott shouted as he and his teammates made their way to him. The three were already in their ranger forms and ready for battle.

"Oh, it's the end of the line alright, for you!" the wolf monster yelled back at them. He grabbed a small silver orb from his belt and chucked it at the rangers. An explosion erupted from it brining the rangers crashing down on the grass.

"Okay…" Flynn said standing. "Smack-talk clearly doesn't work."

"Let's just get this over with and find Dillon." Ziggy added, pushing himself to his feet.

"Dillon? The wolf asked with distaste. "Is that that Series Black Ranger? I saw him just a little while ago."

"Tell us where he is, freak! Don't make us beat it out of you!" Scott warned the strange monster.

"Oh, he'll show up soon enough." Duo Wolf assured them. "Let's do this!" he said while bolting at the rangers. He ducked and evaded every punch that was thrown his way and retaliated by slashing at each one of them with his wolf claws. With each hit he got in, the ranger's suits smoked and sparked.

"Let's scatter!" Scott ordered them. Then he, Flynn and Ziggy all ran in separate directions, in an attempt to confuse their opponent. So, the wolf beast ran at the ranger he saw first—Ziggy.

Ziggy continued to follow Scott's word to separate but he soon found that this monster was gaining on him.

"Why are you running, Green Ranger? Are you scared?" Duo Wolf taunted at him, trying to use his fear against him.

Ziggy ran by a set of three red swings. "Running? Who's running? I'm just trying to…wear you out!" he told him, clearly grasping at straws. He pushed the swings one at a time at the monster, when Duo Wolf raised his hands to defend himself, Ziggy hopped onto one of the swings and rammed into his opponent with his feet. Duo Wolf staggered backwards from the blow, then Ziggy swung high in the air, jumped off and while in mid-air, he called upon his weapon. "Turbo Axe!" As he descended, he slashed the monster mercilessly with the axe. This made the wolf stumble far away from him. "I'd call that a swing and a hit!" Ziggy punned to himself.

Duo Wolf stumbled all the way over to Flynn by the slides. "Hello there!" the Blue Ranger said cheery. As he slid down the slide, he fired his Nitro Blaster rapidly at his target.

"Why you!" Duo Wolf grumbled, trying to throw a fist at the ranger's face. Flynn avoided this by pushing himself back up the blue slide. He front flipped off of it and landed behind the monster. "What the?" Duo Wolf exclaimed in disbelief. He knew that the rangers were fast and coordinated, but he had no idea that it was to that degree. He turned around and saw the ranger in blue pointing a large weapon in his face.

"Turbo Cannon!" Flynn called out while holding the weapon in his hands. He fired the weapon at the beast. The distance he flew from the blast made him land all the way over to Scott by the seesaw. "Gotta love the cannon!" Flynn smirked giving his weapon a light tap.

Duo Wolf groaned as he crashed into the seesaw. "Ready to tell us where Dillon is?" The Red Ranger asked the villain.

"I'll never talk!" the wolf screamed at him.

Scott shrugged. "Okay, I tried to reason with you." Scott stepped hard on one end of the seesaw smacking Duo Wolf in the jaw with it. With the low end now on his side, Scott walked on top of the toy, running over to Duo Wolf's side meeting him with a hard punch to the gut.

"I've had enough of you fools!" Duo Wolf exclaimed. He ran to the high end of the seesaw and slammed down hard on it. Scott flew high into the air. "Ha! Stupid ranger." He laughed. "He thought he had me!"

"I do!" Scott retaliated as he dropped from the sky. "Street Saber!" he shouted, landing down hard on his opponent with it. Duo Wolf crumpled to the ground like a piece of paper. He was getting thrashed by the rangers and could barely make it to his feet again.

"How could I lose to you ingrates!" Duo Wolf sneered at them with a loud groan.

"_Now_ are you ready to tell us where Dillon is?" Scott yelled to him as Ziggy and Flynn joined him at his side.

"I can answer that." A familiar voice answered. The mysterious person walked from behind a tree, showing himself—it was Dane in his ranger form walking right for them.

"Is that?" Scott began.

"Dillon?" Ziggy finished for him.

"Or Dane?" Flynn chimed in.

The Ranger in black walked up to the fallen monster. You couldn't see his face, but you could tell in his body language that he was not happy with what this monster had done.

"I-I'm sorry! I tried! They were to-too much!!" The Wolf beast cried at him.

"You're more useless than I thought." Dane said to him. "Get out of my sight!" Ranger Black snorted at him. He pressed his hand hard against the monster's arm and teleported him back to Venjix's base. After he was done with him, he turned to the colorful rangers before him. "Alone at last, rangers." He said with pleasure.

Scott stepped forward. "I know you're in there, Dillon! Come on, man, I know you can fight this!"

"Your words can't reach him where he is, Ranger Red!" Dane snapped at him. "You might as well stop trying to get through to him!"

"We defeated you pathetic friend, do you want to be next?" Flynn asked angrily.

"Yeah, because we've had enough of you and your trouble!" Ziggy added.

"Go ahead and try it." Dane baited them. "Destroy me and you can say goodbye to your 'Dillon' friend."

Scott pulled out his Nitro Blaster and aimed it at Dane. He was through playing these games, he wanted to get his friend back and he wanted to do it now.

"Scott, what're you doing?" Flynn asked him in shock.

"You can't! If you do, Dillon will be gone too!" Ziggy cried.

Scott didn't speak; he just held up his weapon and aimed it at Ranger Black, ready to fire at any given moment.

At the Garage, Summer got an alert that Ranger Black was near. She limped over to the monitors and hit a few keys.

"What is it?" Doctor K asked walking up beside her. "Did you find Ranger Black?"

Summer looked at the screen in utter shock. "Yeah…and Scott's got a blaster on him." She said softly.

"Do it, Red Ranger! Pull the trigger! Then you'll have to live with the fact that you destroyed one of your own teammates out of anger!" Dane shouted, trying to mess with Scott's mind. "Do you think you can handle a burden like that?"

Scott's hand quivered as he held the blaster, his finger hovering over the trigger.

"Do it!" Dane screamed at him again.

Flynn walked beside Scott and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't listen to him, Scott." He spoke in a kind voice. "You know you can't do this. It's Dane you want to destroy—not Dillon. Put the blaster away."

Ziggy stepped to the other side of Scott and patted his shoulder. "Let's just go back to The Garage and figure this out."

A few silent moments passed and Scott began to lower his arm. "You're lucky my friends come first." He said with venom in his voice. He hated this whole ordeal, he wanted Dane to be destroyed but he wasn't about to sacrifice Dillon to do it.

"Typical." Dane hissed. "You ranger are all the same, choosing friendship over victories. You'll never succeed at this rate."

"At least we have people that care about us. Who do you have? No one! Only you're hatred, and it will end up consuming you. Dillon may be trapped inside of you somewhere, but he knows he's not alone!" Flynn yelled at the dark ranger.

"I may have no one, but that only means that when I win, I only have myself to share it with. I get it all to myself! That's the one thing Dillon and I share, we're used to being alone." Dane snapped back at them. With that, he called upon his weapon. "Rocket Blaster!"

Scott, Flynn and Ziggy froze in place. They knew that they wouldn't stand a chance if this weapon was fired at them, and they didn't have the time to run. All they could do was brace themselves.

"Fire!" Dane screamed, firing the large gun. The three rangers plummeted to the ground, and much to their surprise, they were alive—banged up but alive. Their ranger powers left them as they hit the grass. "Get up!" Dane ordered them.

"What do we do?" Flynn whimpered.

They three suddenly heard Doctor K through their helmets. "Rangers Red, Blue and Green, you need to retreat _now_!" she said firmly.

Doctor K turned to Summer after she made her call. "If they're hit by a blast like that again, it's over for them."

"No—Dillon won't let that happen." Summer said with confidence, staring intently at the screen.

Dane walked closer to the weakened rangers, pointing the large black blaster at them. "I said _get up_!" he warned them again.

"Okay, I may be wrong in saying this, but maybe Dillon really _is_ gone this time!" Ziggy said painfully.

Dane got right up to the rangers and aimed the blaster right at the Red Ranger's face. Scott stared down the barrel of the weapon, frozen in fear. "Nice knowing you rangers." The Black Ranger spoke coldly.

As Dane started to pull the trigger, he felt something overtaking him. He dropped his weapon to the ground, took a tight grip on his head and began to groan and stagger about. Scott felt is body untense, feeling very relieved that the blaster was out of his face. Dane stopped about ten feet away from the rangers and hit his knees. The Black Ranger's helmet left his face, but his suit remained. The face that was revealed was brown-eyed Dillon. He fell forward slightly, using his hands to hold him up.

"…Then again. Maybe not." Ziggy concluded. Then he, Scott and Flynn all made it to their feet and looked at the ranger before them.

"Run rangers! Get out of here!" Dillon called out to them. The tone in his voice was a begging one. He was still desperately fighting off Dane, who was determined to come out again.

"Dillon?" Scott said with surprise, "What—"

"I can't hold him off much longer! Please, just go!" Dillon pleaded. None of the rangers had ever seen this look of desperation in his face, especially Summer who watched from The Garage.

Ziggy walked next to Scott and looked at him sternly. "I'd do what he says. I know him well enough to know when he means business."

"Fine." Scott submitted, no matter how much he detested it. "All rangers retreat to base." The Red Ranger couldn't believe that he was making _this_ call_ now_. Then the three rangers began to run off, granting Dillon's request.

"Hey!" Dillon called out to them. The three rangers stopped in their tracks and turned to face him. "I'm sorry." He said to them softly. All the Red, Blue and Green Rangers could do was look at him. They wanted nothing more than to save him, but that wasn't possible at the moment. "Now go!" he shouted. Then the three did just that.

When the rangers were out of sight, Dillon found himself not able to fight off Dane anymore. He fell forward in the grass, his eyes closing in weakness. Seconds later, his left hand grabbed a clump of grass and pulled it toward him. His eyes shot open and they were wide and topaz. He pushed himself off of the ground and made it back to his feet.

"You may have protected your friends _this_ time, Ranger Black, but it won't happen again." Dane said with an evil grin on his face. He turned to walk away, brining his helmet back onto his head.


	14. Mirrors

At the lair of Venjix, Duo Wolf landed on the floor out of nowhere. When he realized where he was he quickly gathered himself to his feet.

"What _happened_ out there, you idiot?!" Venjix scolded him. "They were minus two rangers and somehow you still managed to lose!"

"Well, they all ganged up on me at once! I was blindsided!" Duo Wolf cried in his defense.

Tenaya walked up next to him with her arms folded. There was a look of disapproval on her face. "Didn't look that way to me." She said coldly. "Looked like they just beat you to a pulp using kiddy toys."

Duo Wolf turned to her in rage. "Shut up, witch!" he shouted at her. "I fought to the best of my abilities!"

"Clearly your abilities are pathetic." Tenaya retaliated with a smirk.

"Why you—" Dou Wolf began and attempted to throw a punch her way.

"SILENCE!!" Venjix yelled in a booming voice at the two. Duo Wolf lowered his hand and he and Tenaya turned to face him. "Thanks to you and the good side of the Black Ranger, the Red, Blue and Green rangers were able to escape. We can't allow for the goodness in Ranger Black to interfere any longer." He went on. "We need to stop this pure side of him from getting through, and to do that, his friends need to be annihilated. This 'Dillon' part of him only seems to return when he is among his friends, so if we eliminate them, we eliminate our problems."

"Who should be the one to go after them again?" Tenaya asked, hoping strongly that the answer would be herself.

"Just Duo Wolf and some Grinders for now. I'll give him another chance to prove himself. Once he and the Black Ranger have the others on the ropes, you and General Shifter can join them in battle." Venjix explained.

"Fine with me. Just make sure _this_ one doesn't screw up again." Tenaya said aiming her head in Duo Wolf's direction. The wolf beast just snarled at her.

"I've got that covered as well." Venjix informed them. "Stand before me, Duo Wolf."

"Right!" Duo Wolf replied, doing as his master had asked. With that, Venjix fired a large red beam at the wolf-bot that surged into him. After a few moments of shaking, Duo Wolf buffed up dramatically, making him all the more intimidating. His eyes went from blue to yellow, and his fur went from a soft gray, to an amber color. Huge muscles ripped over his dark fur and his face got angrier looking than before.

"That should do the trick." Venjix stated evilly.

Duo Wolf flexed his muscles and let out a proud roar. "I'm ready to bash some rangers!" he shouted with an evil laugh.

Dane decided to buy himself some time and headed back to the abandoned warehouse. He wanted to come up with a plan to destroy the rangers and Dillon as well. He could feel deep inside of him that Dillon was fighting to regain control and was doing everything he could to make sure that didn't happen.

He was in his ranger form but had his helmet retracted. He stormed through the empty place passing broken glass and old wooden boxes. All of a sudden he felt a painful pounding in his head, Dillon was fighting harder than ever to get his life back and wasn't going to stop until he did.

Dillon felt himself being back in control, but when he looked in to a broken mirror against the wall, he saw Dane's face staring back at him. In the reflection, Dillon saw Dane's horrible eyes glaring back at him with a look of evil and vengeance on his face. But in reality, where Dillon stood, his eyes were soft and there was nothing evil-looking about him.

"_Hello, Dillon."_ His reflection sneered at him with a wicked grin. _"Seems like it's taking more and more out of you these days to fight me off…pity."_

"I'll do whatever it takes to fight you. The rangers won't let you hurt anyone…and neither will I." Dillon said back to him.

"_Oh, really?"_ Dane asked with a hint of amusement. _"As I recall you've already injured your little yellow friend." _

"_You_ did that." Dillon snapped back at him.

"_But you failed at stopping now didn't you?" _Dane informed him. _"If you couldn't protect _her_ what makes you think you can protect anyone else?" _

Dillon remained silent for a moment. He still hated himself for what had happened to Summer. He felt so close to her and yet he let someone like Dane hurt her. Maybe Dane was right, how could he keep anyone safe if he couldn't even protect Summer or himself from this lunatic?

"_Ooh, I struck a nerve didn't I?" _Dane asked with a satisfied grin, he loved that he was able to mess with Dillon's mind like this. _"You know I really enjoyed pulling that trigger and seeing her crumble to the ground. I guess it was because I knew the best way to get to you was through her."_

"Summer doesn't concern you. Leave her out of this, or I swear I'll destroy you myself if I have to." Dillon warned him. The thought of anything else happening to Summer made him feel sick. He'd do whatever it took to keep her safe from this man, no matter what the cost.

"_Sure you could. But if either you or your little buddies makes one little mistake and destroys you instead, I'll be here to stay." _ Dane informed him.

"Then I guess I'll have to destroy us both." Dillon told him.

"_Not while I'm around." _Dane hissed, fully regaining all control of Dillon's body. _"You'll go down with the others…mark my words."_

Scott stormed into The Garage with Ziggy and Flynn trailing behind him. Summer stood when she saw them enter the room. She could only imagine what was going through their minds, especially Scott's. He always hated retreating in a battle, even more so when a friend was in danger. She hated this just as much as he did, and she wasn't even there. All she could do at the moment was try not to make things worse.

"Scott, are you all alright?" She asked them.

"I can't believe we had to retreat!" he shouted, storming past her. "What're we going to do?!" he couldn't help but begin to pace the room, he had to blow off steam in one way or another.

Doctor K sat at her desk and began to type quickly. "We need to stop him before he attacks the city. And I just may have a way to do that." The four rangers all gathered around her desk to see what she was up to.

"You do?" Summer asked, looking at her.

"Why haven't you told us this way sooner?" Flynn asked with an annoyed tone.

"Because it's a very high-risk solution. There's a chance this way could annihilate Ranger Black altogether." The Doctor told them with a serious look. They could all tell that she didn't really want things to come to this either, but it was her job to assist in any way she could to protect Corinth.

"Annihilate?" Ziggy asked in disbelief, "That's not good, not good at all."

Scott soon found himself growing angrier. "What do you have in mind, Dr. K?" he asked coldly.

After typing a few more keystrokes, the Doctor pulled up an image of a strange weapon. It resembled the one that Tenaya had with her before, but it was differed in some ways. It was a long metal rod with three claws at the end of it as opposed to the five before.

"This is a Negative Electron Extractor—or NEE for short. This is a weapon used to remove any negative energies from a robotic source." K explained, pointing to the weapon on screen. "These were also used two years ago when the Grinders arrived. It was another tactic in trying to get them to our side."

"This isn't…" Summer began with disgust as she backed away from the screen with her limp.

"Summer…" Scott said to her gently. Like Summer, Scott already knew what this weapon was and what it was capable of doing. And knowing that Summer really cared about Dillon, he knew full well that she wouldn't be on board with this way of doing things.

"No, Scott. We can't do it this way, there has to be something else we can try." Summer said with fear in her eyes.

"Summer, you know that this is the _only_ way we can save him." Doctor K told her, she sounded somewhat sweet and gentle. She may have been rough around the edges but they all knew deep down that she cared about them. "I know it's high risk but—"

"You know what happened when we used those last time! All the Grinders we used it on _completely _shut down. We never got them to work for us, because they never came back again!" Summer cried.

Ziggy just looked at her with sad eyes. He may not have known as well as they did what was going on, but he knew that it caused great pain to Summer, and he hated that. Flynn looked at him and shook his head signaling he shouldn't ask about it. Flynn was with Summer and Scott two years ago and had used this type of weapon himself, he'd seen up close the effects it had on creatures with robotic technologies. He never thought in a million years that he might have to use one on a teammate.

Scott walked up to Summer and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I know this isn't ideal, Summer. I'm not happy with it coming to this either, but if it means protecting innocent civilians, then…" he trailed off. He felt like a jerk being so blunt with her. She was like his sister. All he wanted to do was to hug her and tell her everything was going to be all right.

"It's our duty as rangers to do whatever it takes…I know." She finished for him.

Ziggy stood from his seat and walked over to them. "Um, if I may interrupt here, what exactly does this thing do?" he hated asking a question like this with Summer so upset, but he needed to know just in case he had to be the one to do it.

Doctor K rose from her desk and came around it to talk to him." It's used exactly like a CE Taser, except if it's used too long, the robotic source shuts down…forever."

"Why?" Ziggy asked her.

"See, what happens is it sends electrons into the target to destroy all of the negative electrons that have taken over. But if too many of these electrons are sent in, they can begin to destroy all of the positive electrons as well, corrupting the data causing an eternal shut-down." She explained to the best of her ability. Ziggy just nodded slowly at her, he really didn't have much clue as to what she had just said, but he couldn't admit to it.

"What if it's used correctly?" Flynn chimed in on a positive note. "What happens then?"

"In _that_ case, Dane would be destroyed and Dillon will remain. He'd be back to his old self again." She told them, trying to muster up a smile, but the small smile soon faded. "What you all have to decide is if it's worth the risk—to yourselves, Dillon, and the citizens of Corinth."

Summer felt as if she were sinking. She had this impossible choice to make and she had to make it fast. She knew that they were going to have to take drastic action, but she didn't know that it would come to this extent. All she could think of was when Dillon kissed her, she had fallen hard for him and couldn't bear the thought of losing him so soon.

She saw Doctor K leave the room and reenter it a few moments later, holding the horrid weapon. She placed it on the table in front of the rangers. "The choice is yours." She told them. Scott walked over to the table and took the NEE in his hands. Just looking at it he knew the destruction it could cause. He walked over to Summer slowly. He hated the worry he saw in her eyes.

"You won't have to do it, Summer. One of us will." He assured her. "And who knows, it may not even come to this."

Summer sighed and looked sadly into his eyes. "But we both know it will." All the two could do was look at each other, they didn't know what to say. Suddenly, the alarms sounded alerting the rangers to trouble.

"Looks like we have to go." Flynn said walking up to them.

"Monster timing…couldn't be worse." Ziggy joked with a weak chuckle. He knew that nothing he said could make them laugh at the moment.

Scott continued to look at Summer sympathetically. "Maybe you should stay here again, Summer. With what we have to do and your leg—"

"I'm not going to sit this one out, Scott." She told him firmly. "Not a chance."

Doctor K was meanwhile typing on the computers trying to find out who was attacking and where. "I'm picking up one and a half Venjix hardware signals in sector A-5. It's Ranger Black and that wolf-bot again."

"That's the warehouse again. Guess Dane wants to get back to his roots." Flynn stated.

Scott looked at the NEE in his hands, and then to Summer. "Are you ready for this?" he asked her.

"It really doesn't matter if I am or not, does it?" She asked sadly. Then the four rangers headed out to protect the city.


	15. Tough Battles, Tougher Choices

The rangers ran back to the warehouses to meet their call. Scott held the NEE in one hand and help Summer walk beside him with the other. Flynn and Ziggy ran ahead to see if their targets were near.

"There they are!" Flynn shouted, pointing forward.

There Dane stood in his ranger form. They knew it was him due to how slouched over he was. His mere presence just radiated evil. Next to him stood Duo Wolf, pumped and primed. His new form made him more intimidating than the last time the rangers had seen him.

"Well, well, you decided to show up after all." Dane taunted at them. "Pretty gutsy."

"Yeah!" Duo Wolf added. "The outcome of this battle will be _far_ different from the last one!"

"You better hope it does for _your_ sake!" Ziggy shouted back at him.

Dane turned his focus to the weapon that Scott was holding in his hand. "What's that? You need a weapon to fight me?" he said with an amused tone. "Looks like a NEE, I didn't think you had it in you to resort to that."

"Surrender our friend and I won't have to use it!" Scott shouted at him. "Just end this all right now!"

"Fat chance!" Duo Wolf chimed in. "You don't—"

"Be quiet!" Dane interrupted him. "I can handle this!" he said raising a hand at the beast. He couldn't believe that Venjix sent him to attack with this moron again. He figured he'd handle the rangers then move on to him next. He turned his attention to the rangers. "I'll make you a deal—defeat me and I'll make sure your friend's destruction is painless." He sneered at them.

"We're leaving today with Dillon! How complicated you make it is up to you!" Scott warned the Black Ranger.

"The only way to destroy me is risking destroying Dillon as well." Dane hissed turning to Summer. "Can the little Yellow Ranger handle that?" Dane could see most of Dillon's memories because they shared the same body, he knew that Dillon had kissed her and had feeling for her, and that she shared those feelings as well. He figured he'd wear her down emotionally first.

Summer didn't answer the evil ranger. Dane's words had gotten to her—she was speechless. She hated this plan ever since she heard about it and Dane was making it all the more clear as to what could happen.

Scott stroked Summer's arm gently. "Don't listen to him, Summer. I'll do everything I can to prevent that from happening. I promise this'll all work out."

"I hope you're right." Summer answered softly.

"Can we stop all of this meaningless jibber-jabber?! I want to pound you for what you did to me last time!" Duo Wolf growled. "I want revenge!"

Dane pulled out his Nitro Sword slowly. "I too want revenge." He said lowly in an evil tone. "Ready Red Ranger?" he asked, pointing the sword at Scott.

Scott exhaled sharply before he answered. "If this is how it has to be." He said sadly. "Ready team?" he asked them.

"Ready!" The four rangers responded activating their Morphers. "RPM—Get in gear!" they called in unison. Seconds later they were in their ranger bio-hardware.

Scott made a beeline for Dane while Flynn, Summer and Ziggy ran for Duo Wolf. "Street Saber!" Scott called as he ran. The large sword appeared in one hand while the other held the NEE. Scott and Dane's swords hit with a clang. Dane used both of his hands to press down on the Red Ranger's sword using his own. Scott only had one hand he could work with at the moment, so he soon found himself being overpowered. But the Red Ranger managed to slash Dane twice across the chest with his saber when he found an opening.

After a few brief moments of sparks and smoke filling the air, Dane soon found his bearings again and ran back at Scott. He answered Red's attacks with two slashes of his own, nailing Scott in the chest. He didn't stop at that, he just kept swinging mercilessly.

"Getting tired, Ranger Red?" Dane asked with amusement.

Scott finally was able to counter Dane's blows with his Street Saber, buying him a few seconds. "Hardly!" he shouted, trying to jab Dane with the NEE. Dane did a high jump backwards to avoid it. While in mid-air, he flipped his Nitro Sword into Blaster mode.

"Fire!!" Dane shouted loudly. Beams rained all over Scott, hitting him over and over. He fell to the ground rolling. The NEE flew from his hands and slid across the concrete.

Meanwhile the others fought to hold off the new and improved Duo Wolf. Since regular fighting tactics didn't seem to be working, they decided to kick it up a notch.

"Turbo Cannon!" Flynn shouted, pulling out the large and dangerous weapon.

"Zip Charger!" Summer added, aiming the small yellow weapon at Duo Wolf.

"Turbo Axe!" Ziggy yelled, heaving the axe in the air preparing to strike.

The three rangers all struck as hard as they could with the their weapons.

"Not this time!" Duo Wolf boasted, leaping away from the three attacks. When he landed on the ground, he reached behind his back, pulling a small silver orb from his belt and chucking it at the rangers. It was a grenade-like tool and it sent the rangers to the ground. The blast threw them a couple feet, and where Ziggy landed, he saw the NEE weapon.

Ziggy scooped the NEE up as fast as he could. "I have the NEE, Scott!" he yelled to him.

"Good!" The Red Ranger responded as he warded off the Black Ranger. "Make sure Dane or Duo Wolf don't get their hands on it!"

"Uh…got it!" Ziggy answered nervously. He ran as fast as he could out of harm's way to keep the weapon safe until they could use it. It was at that moment he heard the song that he hated most: Tenaya's famous "Farmer in the Dell" whistling tune. "Great! Not this freaky stuff again!" the Green Ranger whimpered.

He heard the whistling suddenly cease and saw Tenaya descending on him with a jump kick. She made contact with his stomach, making him jerk backwards. He managed to keep the NEE in his hands after the blow. When she landed, Tenaya immediately tried to pry the weapon from his hands.

"I'll be taking this!" She informed him, pulling the weapon as hard as she could.

"I don't think so, sister!" Ziggy retaliated. He may have let Tenaya overtake him once, but seeing as how his friend's being was on the line, he wasn't about to let it happen again.

Scott and Dane continued to battle one another furiously. Dane's punches and kicks came so quickly that all Scott could focus on was his defense, and not his offense. Reason being, Dillon had heightened speed, and it just stood to reason that Dane would have it too. Scott felt himself growing tired from warding off Dane's rapid blows, so his defense methods were starting to weaken. Dane threw a hard punch at Scott's torso, making him double over, and then he kicked at his right knee, making him fall forward.

Brining weapons back into the fight, Dane pulled out his Nitro Sword and slashed it across Scott's left arm. Scott's Street Saber went flying through the air and landed somewhere behind him. The Red Ranger lay on the ground, feeling every injury on his body throb. Dane aimed the sword at Scott's head.

"I'm going to enjoy this Red Ranger—destroying the RPM team's one and only leader. Pity your friend Dillon isn't here to witness it…but don't worry, he'll be next." Dane said in such an evil voice that it made Scott's skin crawl. It had the essence of Dillon's voice, which really disturbed him; he couldn't image Dillon saying such vile things to him, or anyone for that matter.

"Go ahead." Scott told him as he glared at the blade in front of him. "Destroy me. But do you really think that Dillon's gone forever? He _will_ come back and he'll destroy you."

"That's a nice little fantasy, ranger. Too bad it won't come to pass." Dane sneered evilly. The Black Ranger retracted the blade in preparation to strike. "Your time is up." he said coldly. As he went to lower his blade, Dane felt something stop him just before his hit landed. Up against his sword was another sword warding his off. He looked up to see Summer with her own Nitro Sword, preventing him from annihilating the Red Ranger.

"I don't think so!" She yelled, pushing his sword out of the way. She slashed at him roughly across the chest.

"What?!" Dane scowled as he backed up a few feet.

"Summer?" Scott asked looking up at her in disbelief.

"Are you alright?" Summer asked the Red Ranger, extending a hand to help him stand.

"I'm fine…thank you." He said standing and hugging her. He never thought as Summer as a weak teammates, but he never saw her pulling something like this off.

"Anytime." Summer replied sweetly.

Summer and Scott both turned to Dane with their main weapons drawn. "It's all over Dane. Surrender Dillon NOW!" Scott yelled at him.

"Surrender?" Dane scoffed in disgust. "I'll never surrender! I'd rather be destroyed first!" he screamed, staggering about aimlessly.

"Don't make it come to that! It doesn't have to end like this!" Summer called out to him.

"End?!" Dane yelled crazily. "This is nowhere close to ending! It won't end until you're all destroyed!" Dane's shaky steps caused something to fall from his pocket. A small silver, circular object hit the ground and a soft melody began playing from it. It was Dillon's pocket watch. The three rangers stared at it as the music played. Dane seemed captivated by it. He knelt to pick it up and just glared at it in his hands. He suddenly felt himself begin to shake, the good part of him was fighting to get through again, and this time it seemed more determined than ever. He collapsed to the ground, gripping his helmet.

"Dillon?" Summer asked softly.

Dane let out a loud cry and pounded the ground hard with his fists. "No! You're not coming back, Black Ranger! Never!!" After a moment he stumbled to his feet and began to run over to the other sections of the warehouse.

"We have to go after him!" Summer cried.

"Right behind you!" Scott told her. As they began to run after Ranger Black, they heard their Morphers chime. They reached for them and opened them, hearing Ziggy and Flynn's calls come through each of them.

"Scott! A little help over here would be nice!" Flynn shouted. They heard struggle in his voice as he fought his opponent.

"Summer!" Ziggy's voice said through her Morpher. "I need your help! Tenaya's about to get the NEE rod!"

Summer turned to Scott for instructions. "What do we do?" She asked him.

Scott heaved a heavy sigh before he answered. "Dane's going to have to wait…they need us."

Summer just grew silent. She knew what had to be done, no matter how much she wanted to go after Dillon. Scott was right in making this call. "Let's go." She answered softly. Then she and the Red Ranger ran to where they were needed. Scott ran to aid Flynn and Summer went to help Ziggy. She ran as fast as he limped steps would allow.

"Zip Charger!" She yelled, firing the weapon at Tenaya, freeing Ziggy from her grip.

Tenaya turned toward the Yellow Ranger, her mask glistening in the sun. "Back off, Blondie! We're in the middle of something here!"

"N-no, don't back off! I need help here!" Ziggy yelled to her. The NEE fell from the Green Ranger's hands to the floor. Tenaya threw him off of her and went for it. Summer rolled over to the weapon, just grabbing it before Tenaya could.

"Too slow!" Summer smirked, holding the weapon in front of her. Tenaya growled in anger and went for her. Ziggy, thinking quickly, hopped on her back to stop her.

"Summer, you go after Dane while I…hold her!" Ziggy yelled as he struggled to hang on to Tenaya who was bucking and thrashing about.

"But…" Summer said looking down at the weapon. She didn't want to be the one to use it, but it appeared as if she'd have too.

"Summer!" She heard Scott call out to her. She saw him and Flynn engaged in battle with the Duo Wolf monster. "You have to go—_now_!" he warned her. The monster had a tight grip on the both of them, preventing them from moving, and Ziggy had a hold on Tenaya—it was up to her.

"Go, Summer!" Flynn shouted. "It's the only way!"

Summer glared at the weapon in her hands. She hated every part of this. She had very strong feelings for Dillon and if she somehow screwed this up and destroyed him, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to go on. But she had a choice to make and she had to make it fast. As she looked at the NEE, she felt as if it was taunting her, as if it somehow knew how tormented this made her feel. But without another thought, she gripped the weapon tightly and ran after Dane. It was now or never


	16. Dillon Takes Control

Dane ran amok through the warehouse. He staggered about knocking over old crates and boxes. He came to a dead end of crates and slammed his back into it in fury, as if that somehow would resolve things. As if that somehow would make Dillon disappear. He left his suit on but retracted his helmet so he could better breathe. He felt as if he were suffocating. When the helmet left him, Dillon's soft brown eyes blinked open.

Summer ran close behind the Black Ranger and when she saw him leaning against a dead end of crates, she knew she had him cornered. "Stop right there!" she yelled holding out the NEE.

Dillon's head shot up when he heard her voice. "Summer?" he asked between breaths.

When she heard the softness in the Black Ranger's voice, she knew that Dillon had returned. She retracted her helmet as well to get a better look at him. "Dillon?" she asked softly.

"For now." Dillon answered sadly. He looked at the weapon she was holding in her hands. "Is that an NE Extractor?"

Summer looked at the weapon in her hands, then back to Dillon sadly. She didn't speak; she just gave a hesitant nod.

"So you know what has to be done?" he asked her. She answered with another hesitant nod. He could see it in her eyes that she dreaded this. But he, like she did, knew what had to be done. "Do it. Do it, please." He said in a soft, pleading tone.

Summer felt tears fill her eyes. "Dillon, I can't. You—"

"It's not safe to be around me!" He cried. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. I…I…" he said, but was cut off by his own cries of pain. He grabbed his head trying to get his bearings back.

Summer took a step closer to him. Suddenly, the Black Ranger pulled out a blaster and aimed it right at her face. His eyes were back to the horrible topaz color that indicated that Dane was back in control. Summer felt herself freeze in place while aiming the NEE back at him.

"What're you waiting for, Yellow? Go ahead, risk the life of the one you love!" Dane shouted at her crazily as he pushed himself off of the crates and moved closer to her. Summer looked at the blaster in her face and felt her heart beat faster. "Destroy me and I'll destroy you." Dane hissed. "Make your choice."

Summer felt her body trembling in terror. Should she risk her and Dillon's lives to save the others? She could think, her mind was going at a million miles a second. She jumped when she heard Dane shriek in agony, he looked down for a moment, but when he looked back up, Dillon was there again.

"Summer, I'm begging you. Please, just do it! You have too!" Dillon begged looking in her eyes. The Yellow Ranger's hand quivered as she looked back into his. "Please…please save everyone from me." He said breathlessly.

A tear fell down Summer's face as she shook her head. "I…can't." she said softly.

Dillon looked at her, and then the NEE she still was aiming at him. "I'm sorry, Summer." He said weakly, then grabbed the rod and jabbed it into his abdomen. His eyes grew wide with pain, pain that Summer could clearly see in his eyes. Her eyes were wide with shock as she watched him weaken. Dillon backed up against the crates again from the force of the weapon. The Black and Yellow Rangers just looked into one another's eyes. She watched as the life faded from him. She couldn't move.

Outside the warehouse, Scott, Flynn and Ziggy continued their battles with Tenaya and Duo Wolf. Scott and Flynn flew to the ground from one of Duo Wolf's blasts, and Tenaya threw Ziggy down beside them to join them.

"Just give up, rangers! Make it easy on yourselves!" Tenaya yelled at them. The Red, Blue and Green Rangers struggled to make it to their feet again.

"We don't have time for this!" Scott roared. "Summer needs us!"

"Well, what do you propose we do?!" Flynn shouted back at him an annoyed tone.

"I vote for running and hiding!" Ziggy said cowardly.

"I'm with the Green Ranger!" Duo Wolf said walking over to them. "Just run and avoid being destroyed!"

Scott racked his brain for any possible solution as to how to get out of this. Time was running out and he knew that Summer was bound to be struggling with what she had to do. He thought and thought until an idea finally hit him. "I have an idea." Scott told his teammates carefully so the baddies didn't hear him.

"Then be a dear and share it with the rest of the class!" Flynn shouted.

Scott turned to the Green Ranger. "Ziggy, you're going to have to hold off Tenaya again." He instructed him.

"Great…" Ziggy said with a scoff. "Why is it always me that gets stuck with the crazy ones." He moaned as he headed back over to her.

"Okay, now what do _we_ do?" Flynn asked quickly.

"I'm thinking we use our Red and Blue Series specialties." Scott told him slyly.

"Aye." Flynn responded. "I see what your driving at, I suspend time, while you burst them." He grinned. "I like it."

"Then let's do it!" Scott ordered as he and the Blue Ranger got back on their feet.

Ziggy ran at Tenaya and faced her. "Can't get enough of me can you, Green?" she asked with a flirty smile.

"Believe me—I can!" Ziggy retaliated with disgust. He pulled out his Turbo Axe and aimed it at her. "Let's make this quick!"

"My pleasure." She sneered. Then the battle began. Ziggy swung his axe as hard as he could at her, but due to the sheer heft of the weapon, it threw it off his game a little. And Tenaya was bound and determined to destroy him.

Meanwhile, Scott and Flynn found themselves face to face with Duo Wolf. "Let's end this once and for all, posers!" the wolf-bot yelled at them.

"Ready, Flynn?" Scott asked turning to him.

"You know it!" Flynn responded holding up his Morpher to activate his specialty. "Time Suspend!" he shouted. Everything around them turned into a black and white frozen world. The only ones that were in color and could move were he and Scott. "You got ten seconds!" The Blue Ranger warned him.

"I only need five." Scott answered confidently. He darted at Duo Wolf as fast as his legs would take him. When he finally made it to the frozen monster, he activated his Morpher for his own specialty.

"Burst Attack!" the Red Ranger shouted at the top of his lungs. Then a massive explosion overtook the wolf-bot, exploding him into nothingness. After about five more seconds, time resumed, this time without Duo Wolf.

"Yeah! That did it!" Scott cheered.

"That's Blue and Red for you!" Flynn added happily. Scott ran over to Flynn and the two gave one another a high-five.

Seconds later they turned to see Ziggy struggling to hold off Tenaya. "Yeah, that's all well and good and everything, but I could use some help over here!" he shouted with fright.

Tenaya threw the Green Ranger off of her. When his legs hit the ground, he lost control of his shin wheels. Luckily, Scott and Flynn were there to steady him.

"Don't bother! I'm finished with you all for now. I have to report back to Venjix." She said coldly to them, then teleported herself away. Tenaya was never one to surrender a fight, but she knew when she was outnumbered, and didn't want to risk ending up like her wolf accomplice.

"They always run when I have them on the ropes." Ziggy bragged, dusting himself off.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's why." Scott answered patronizingly. "But right now, we have to go check on Dillon and Summer." The two rangers nodded in response and began to run and help them.

But suddenly Ziggy stopped when he saw something on the ground. "Wait you guys!" he yelled, picking up Dillon's pocket watch. "Dillon's going to need this!" he said in a positive tone. He didn't know f Dillon was going to be all right or not, but he thought he'd grab it just in case. Then he and they others continued to the warehouse.


	17. It's Over Now

Summer couldn't release the weapon in her hands, not only because Dillon had a tight grip on it, but also because she was so paralyzed in shock that she felt she couldn't move. She saw Dillon's eyes fading back and forth between brown and topaz and that alone horrified her. The pained cries she heard Dillon made rang loud in her ears. But she realized that he was doing this to save innocents, himself and most of all—her.

She finally felt words leave her mouth. "Dillon…wh-why?" she asked with wet eyes.

"I…had too. If the others a-ask, tell them…it was se-self defense." He told her in gasping breaths.

"But…I-I…" Summer stammered.

"It'll be alright…I promise." He assured her. All she could do was look at him—this was truly a nightmare.

"Summer!" Scott yelled from a ways back. She couldn't see him, but she knew he and the others were close.

She looked at Dillon once more and through his pain he winked at her before pulling the weapon from his body. He collapsed to the ground a moment later. Summer just stared at his lifeless body and felt herself about to hyperventilate. She had no idea if he was still alive or not, she just felt panicked. She dropped the NEE to the floor and took a few small steps back.

Scott, Flynn and Ziggy ran up behind her and saw that she was quivering in horror at Dillon's unconscious body on the ground. The three rangers removed their helmets as well to better see what had happened. Scott knew what had happened and he immediately took Summer in his arms and hugged her, shading her vision from Dillon to ease her pain.

"It's okay…" He said gently as he stroked her hair. "It's okay. You had to do it. It's over."

Flynn and Ziggy ran over to Dillon to check on him. Ziggy was trained in aiding others in need, so he was quickly able to give a status report.

"His readings are dangerously low, but he's alright." Ziggy said with a sigh of relief.

"Really?" Summer asked hopefully.

"Affirmative. We just need to get him to a bed or something." Ziggy told them.

"Will do." Scott said with a smile. He turned to the Yellow Ranger. "You really did a great job, Summer." He said sweetly.

Summer knew that she wasn't the one who did any of this, but Dillon was fine and she didn't want to get into all of that with the others if she didn't have too. A wide smile spread across her face. "Thanks." She answered happily.

"To the Garage then!" Flynn announced. Then he and Scott picked Dillon off the ground and the five rangers headed home.

At the Venjix barricades, Tenaya headed nervously down the hallway to face her boss. She had screwed up in getting the rangers twice and she knew that he was going to be all but furious with her. As much as she hated to follow Venjix, what she hated more was that she somewhat feared him. She pushed the large doors in front of her open, and walked in. She put her hands behind her back and stared at the floor.

"Tenaya, you better have a good explanation as to why you were unsuccessful." Venjix said coldly.

Tenaya looked up at the big red light that was Venjix and just hoped that it didn't blast her to pieces. "Well, that Wolf thing was as useless as they come, and I thought it was better that I retreat before I was ambushed by more rangers than I could handle at the moment." She explained. "Then you would be down two generals."

"Speaking of which, where is General Crunch? I'd like to have a little…discussion with him." Venjix told her with an evil tone.

Tenaya felt a grin spread across her face. "I'll go and fetch him for you." She said. With that, she left the room. She felt that she had totally dodged a bullet—she knew that Crunch was in for it. She may have retreated from a battle with the rangers, but it was Crunch's plan that had ultimately failed. So she went to try and find the doomed general.

She walked into the room where the experiment with the Black Ranger had taken place; she figured he would be here trying to come up with a good excuse as to why it didn't take full effect. She failed to notice that Crunch was hiding under the one and only table in the room, and she walked right passed him. As she went to leave the room to continue her search, she heard a small whimper come from beneath the table. She grinned evilly once more, loving that she had found her prey. When she crouched under the table, Crunch gasped in horror.

"Hello, General Crunch." She said with a creepy tone. "Venjix would like to have a word with you." With that, she yanked him from under the table and dragged him to where he was beckoned.


	18. Rest For the Weary

Dillon had never been one to sleep. He wasn't even aware that he could. But due to the events over the past couple of days, even the strongest of robots would need to take a breather. He felt awake and asleep at the same time. Everything was dark around him, he wasn't really sure if his eyes were open or closed because he felt so fatigued. He heard voices chatting all around him but they were somewhat muffled, but he could tell just from that, that it was Scott, Flynn, Summer and Ziggy.

He felt a harsh stinging pain on the left side of his abdomen right around his ribcage. At the moment, he had no idea what it was; he just figured that it was a small injury from sparring. He wanted to put his hand on the wound to ease the pain, but even moving his arm at the moment seemed like too hard of a feat. Something that he _did_ notice was that around his abdomen felt somewhat tight, like someone had covered his injury with gauze. He knew that it was Summer who had aided him, since the dressing was put in place so flawlessly.

Dillon wracked his brain trying to remember what had gotten him into this position, he wanted to open his eyes and asked his friends, but his eyelids felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds each. He fought to stay awake; he didn't want to fall back asleep because he didn't know if he'd wake up again. So he did all that he could at the moment—he thought.

What was this wound on him and how did it get there? He thought and thought until he finally remembered everything—the wound, how he got in this weary state, and most of all, he remembered Dane.

He didn't know if Dane was still deep inside of him somewhere or if the others were even safe to be near him. All Dillon knew was that he wanted answerers and he wanted them fast. He wanted to wake up and ask the others everything, but his body felt so heavy. Suddenly he felt a bright light hit his right eye. He found it in him to open his eyes after blinking a few times. The light went from his right eye to his left before it shut off.

"Yeah, he seems to be okay. His eyes are focusing pretty well and his breathing is normal. He just needs to rest some more to get his full strength back." A familiar voice said.

Dillon focused his eyes to see who this person was. "Ziggy?" he said weakly.

Ziggy looked down with a surprised look on his face. "Um, yeah, yeah. We're all here. How are you feeling buddy?" he asked.

"Tired." Dillon answered. "Very, very tired."

Ziggy patted his shoulder playfully. "I'm not surprised after the shock you took. It nearly fried you, but if you keep resting you'll have all your energy back by the morning." He assured him.

"Is everyone okay?" Dillon asked wearily.

"You can ask them yourself. They're right here." Ziggy told him as he gestured to the rest of the team. Scott, Flynn and Summer all walked to his bedside.

"Hey, man." Scott said with a friendly smile. "It's nice to have you back with us."

"Sleeping or not." Flynn chimed in with a chuckle. Summer punched his arm playfully for is remark.

"Where's…Dane?" Dillon asked hesitantly.

"He's history! Summer was able to extract the right amount of negative electrons from your system and destroy him." Scott said patting Summer on the shoulder.

Both Dillon and Summer knew what had really happened at the warehouse, but felt it was best to leave the others out of it.

"In that case, thank you, Summer." Dillon said with a soft smile.

"Anything for a friend. I'm glad to see you're feeling better." She said back.

"But if he wants to _keep_ recovering, he needs to rest some more. So let's leave him be, we can all go and…play pool or something." Ziggy said shooing them all out of the room.

"Feel better, man!" Scott yelled as he exited.

"See you in the morning!" Flynn shouted with a wave.

After the three men left, Summer trailed behind them. Only she and Dillon were in the room when he called out to her.

"Hey, Summer?" the Black Ranger said.

"Yes?" She answered with a sweet smile.

"I told you everything would be alright." He told her with a grin.

"I never should have doubted you." She said grinning back at him. "Get some rest, Dillon, and make sure not to drop that," She said pointing at his hand, "it wasn't easy getting that back for you." She said, then left the room after giving him a sweet wink.

It wasn't until she said something that Dillon realized that he was holding something in his hand. He slowly lifted his arm to see what it was, and he saw that he was holding his pocket watch. He smiled warmly when he saw it, then flipped it open with his fingers. He let the soft music fill his ears as he closed his eyes again, falling back into sleep with a smile on his face.

The next day, everything seemed to be back to normal. Dillon had all of his strength back and felt like a new man. He was in his room getting dressed, placing his prized watch in his pocket before he left. He walked into the main room of the Garage and saw Scott, Flynn, Summer and Ziggy all playing Jenga again.

They laughed and carried on when Ziggy pulled a wrong piece from the tower, making it collapse all over the table. He couldn't help but smile himself as he went to open the fridge to get a water bottle. The rangers looked at him as he walked across the room.

"You seem like a new man, Dillon." Scott observed.

Dillon opened the fridge and pulled out a water bottle. He opened it and took a long swig before answering. "Well, I feel like a new man." He answered. "It's also good to be only _one_ man again."

"We're glad you're back to your old self." Summer said sweetly.

"Brooding and all." Ziggy added with a chuckle. The others shot Ziggy dirty looks, hoping that that wouldn't anger Dillon. But Dillon just laughed along.

"Right." Dillon laughed. "So, what're you all up to?" he asked.

"Playing this 'Jenga' game again. Care you join us?" Flynn asked gesturing to the wooden blocks.

"If it doesn't seem like a waste of time." Scott smirked regarding Dillon's past comments on the game.

"Why not?" Dillon said as he sat at the table with them. Ziggy had reconstructed the tower and the game was ready to go. "So…what do I do?" Dillon asked.

"We each alternate taking a block from the tower and try not to make it fall. Whoever makes it fall is the loser." Ziggy explained.

"Sounds easy enough." Dillon surmised. Then he reached for one of the blocks in the middle and made the tower fall as soon as he touched it. The other rangers busted out in laughter.

"That's the first time I've ever seen anyone lose on their first turn!" Scott said roaring with laughter.

"Okay…so Jenga isn't your forte." Summer chuckled.

"Hey, it's my first time playing! Twenty bucks says I get the next one. Ziggy set it up again." Dillon said getting into the game more and more.

"I'll take that bet!" Scott yelled pulling out his wallet.

"Me too, I need a new rearview mirror for my jeep." Flynn said pulling out a twenty.

"Yeah, and I saw this CD in town that I really want." Summer added pulling out her purse.

"This is all…very flattering." Dillon said with a small smile as he watched his friends bet on his poor Jenga skills. "I mean business now." He told them with determination.

Then the five rangers played their game…and Dillon lost. Not to the other ranger's surprise. ^_^

THE END

**A/N:**** Well, there's my first RPM story! I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks to all who read, reviewed, or put it on any of their alert lists. I love to hear from you all so please let me know what you think. ^_^**


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